McDonald’s is one of the parties involved in England’s longest-running legal case in history, and it’s just as much of a saga as you’d expect.
In a nutshell: in 1986, London Greenpeace released a pamphlet called “What’s wrong with McDonald’s — everything they don’t want you to know.” There were all kinds of accusations in it, from the mistreatment of animals to encouraging litter. In 1990, McDonald’s filed their libel suit against five people. Three apologized, but Helen Steel, a part-time bar worker, and David Morris, an unemployed postal worker (both pictured), headed to court.
The pair got next to no help, and when they appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for legal aid against the millions McDonald’s was throwing at them, they were essentially told they were doing well enough on their own. BBC says it wasn’t until 1994 that the full trial got into motion, and spawned around 60,000 pages of documents.
It wasn’t over until June 19, 1997, when the judge issued his 762-page verdict and ordered Steel and Morris to pay £60,000 in damages, finding McDonald’s not guilty of many of their accusations. The pair have refused to pay, McDonald’s has said they have no interest in collecting, and the case went down in history.