Water Leaks

The reason there are so many stickers is that there are a bunch of corporate lawyers, who are irrationally frightened of any risk and overreact by demanding that a warning label be put on for every conceivable danger, even the obvious ones.  

Winning warning label cases is very hard.  Few jurors are sympathetic to the plaintiff and there are very few cases where the claimant actually wins.  Corporate lawyers want these cases settled because they don't want to get in trouble with the higher ups if the case "goes south."  They'll offer money even though the case is defensible just to eliminate the "risk exposure" and defense costs.  [No, defense lawyers don't work for free.]  It is not a problem with a pretty good legal system, but with "office" lawyers who are trying to cover their butts and keep off the corporate radar.  In the long run, we all pay for their timidity.

The Ms. Liebeck, who sustained 3d degree burns, didn't get $13M.  The judge reduced the verdict to $640K and it ultimately settled for less than $600K.  Wiki has a nice summary of the case:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants

Unfortunately, many use these truly out of the ordinary lawsuits to argue that the tort system is broken, and yes, every so often it doesn't work so well; but these cases are aberrations, not the norm.  What our tort system needs to work well are more courtrooms and judges to allow prompt trials and less chicken corporate attorneys and insurance executives who would rather settle than try cases because it's easier to pass the cost on to their customers.  The overwhelming majority of accident cases that are tried are "defensed" [i.e. won by the defendant].

People can file lawsuits for pretty much anything, but they don't go far in court.  I recall once defending a case brought by a distraught widow because she claimed that her recently interred husband was decomposing in his grave.  When I got the case, I practically fell out of my chair laughing.  The judge did too when he granted summary judgment.  

Like all things in life, the more we know and the deeper we dig into the details, the more we find out that things are not as simple as they may seem at first.