Burglars suing homeowners, millions for spilled coffee, $54 million for a pair of trousers… Are “crazy lawsuits” really as crazy as they sound? Students look at famous cases, find out which stories are true, and decide for themselves. This level focuses on simple past storytelling and basic words for courts and complaints.
Level: A2 · Time: 45 to 90 minutes. Pick the activities that suit your class. They work in almost any order.
Lesson Activities
- Picture Reveal: Where Are We? – Warmer. Students call numbers and guess the place (a courtroom).
- Real or Fake? – Twelve “crazy lawsuit” stories. Students guess which really happened, then check after the reading. (Real: coffee, trousers, energy drink, footlong, skylight, burglar shot as he ran away. The rest come from a famous hoax email.)
- Key Words Match – Pre-teach ten words from the reading: sue, court, judge, lawyer, spill, burn, fault, warning, trousers, decide.
- Reading: Crazy Lawsuits… Or Not? – A short text about the hot coffee case and the $54 million trousers. Ten gaps, with word bank.
- Check the Real or Fake? answers together after the reading.
- Discussion Cards – Ten questions, from spilled drinks and complaints to whether these people were right to go to court.
- Would You Sue? – Rank nine situations from the best to the worst reason to go to court, then compare.
Teacher Tips
- Shorter lesson: Picture Reveal, Key Words Match, Reading, then five or six discussion cards.
- Language focus: Past simple for telling stories (bought, spilled, went, asked, decided). Ask students to retell one case in their own words.
- Jury role play: Give pairs the coffee case facts but not the result. They are the jury: should McDonald’s pay? How much? Then compare with what really happened.
- Follow-up: Students write a short story about a problem with a shop or company and what they did about it.
Want a more challenging version? Try the B2 lesson.