Eli5: How does some lawsuit cases ends up in one party paying up millions of dollars? (For example, the hot coffee incident with McDonalds)
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Civil lawsuits (ie not criminal) have the plaintiff (person who brings the complaint) and the defendant (the person who the plaintiff believes to be responsible). Civil lawsuits are typically claims of compensation (ie money)
If the plaintiff succeeds, then the court determines the payment due. There are two broad categories of the payment. Compensatory damages is the amount deemed necessary to make good the harm. (so if someone hits your car, this would be the cost of repairing the car and the cost of renting a vehicle while the car is being repaired etc). Punitive damages are the amount deemed necessary to punish the offender (ie to incentivize them not to do this again).
The plaintiff is allowed to claim any amount in their complaint. The court determines the actual amount depending on the outcome – whether there was significant negligence etc etc.
The hot coffee case is pretty notorious but was far from frivolous:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_jaU5V9FUg&ab_channel=LegalEagle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_jaU5V9FUg&ab_channel=LegalEagle)
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