The plaintiff's bar has plenty to do with this silly--and costly--trend. Sham product-liability cases can rack up very real damages. In 2007 the median jury award in product liability cases was just north of $1.9 million, estimates Jury Verdict Research, which tracks results of personal-injury claims.

These cases basically boil down to two principles. First, companies must take care not to put customers in "unforeseen" danger, assuming that those customers act in a "reasonable" manner when using a product or service. (Repeatedly jabbing a bottle of Coca-Cola in your eye and suing for damages probably wouldn't fly in court.) Second, companies have to provide sufficient warning of "foreseeable" danger.

Hence the proliferation of all those goofy warning labels on products and websites.