Will lawyers crash your Halloween festivities this year?

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In 1984, a Michigan man donned his Halloween costume – a sheep – and headed to a party with his wife Little Bo Peep. But when he flippantly lit a cigarette, he went up in flames.

His lawsuit became a new kind of Halloween lore. Each year, trick-or-treaters trip and fall on other people’s property, haunted-house guests are scared into hurting themselves, and dogs bite strangers intruding on their turf. And lawyers are there to file personal injury lawsuits.

A jury awarded Little Bo Peep and her sheep $620,000 from Johnson & Johnson, which made the cotton they used for the costume, before the company had the verdict struck. But not all defendants are successful against Halloween lawsuits – a slip-and-fall cost a Michigan haunted house $125,000.

“Halloween should be about costumes and candy — not courtrooms,” said Lauren Zelt, the executive director of Protecting American Consumers Together, which issued a consumer awareness alert last week.

Lawyers have gone as far as to advertise their services for haunted-house injuries. Proprietors can require customers to sign waivers, but those don’t always hold up in court. In the Michigan case, the company decided it couldn’t rely on a disclaimer on the back of its tickets and ended up paying a six-figure settlement.

A recently filed case in Louisiana says a clown jumped and landed on a woman at the New Orleans Nightmare Haunted House. She ended up in the emergency room.

“When billboard lawyers start advertising for haunted-house injuries, it’s clear America��s lawsuit culture has gone too far. Families deserve to enjoy Halloween without fearing a lawsuit on their doorstep,” Zelt added.

Another Halloween hazard: Rotting pumpkins that make porch steps slippery. Florida personal injury firm Mickey Keenan P.A. offers a checklist for homeowners to keep the holiday safe and notes there are about 4,500 Halloween injuries each year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission,  and about 800 house fires.

Slip-and-fall cases have been birthed by wires powering decorations, and the law says property owners owe a duty to protect invitees, like trick-or-treaters. Standard homeowners insurance policies cover injuries to Halloween invitees, but injury lawyers can file a lawsuit to chase the policy limit, affecting the homeowner’s premium and leaving courts with plenty of cautionary tales of how Halloween can get even scarier.

Savitz v. Lido Knitting

A zombie-themed game at a former warehouse that had been converted into an apartment building was played on a loading dock. Zombies “attack” party-goers as part of the game, but didn’t use their brains when picking where.

Steve Savitz was startled when he was attacked and walked backwards off the edge of the loading dock. The property owner defeated the claim when a New York appeals court ruled it had maintained the dock in a reasonably safe condition.

Vidal v. The Hershey Company

It’s a case everyone can relate to on Halloween: A disappointing piece of candy. But this proposed class action said Hershey was wrong to put a Jack-o-Lantern-style face on Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins on the package’s picture when, inside, it was merely a pumpkin-shaped blob of chocolate with no face.

A federal judge last month tossed the case, saying the plaintiffs showed no injury.

Morris v. Ten Thirty One Productions

A fog machine fell eight feet onto Shanon Morris at a haunted hayride event operated by the defendant, which argued in court that it did not have exclusive control of the machine because of the amount of people present.

“The fact is that the accident happened in a ‘poorly lit’ corridor and no one is quite sure what caused the accident,” a New York judge wrote. The case apparently settled last year.

Munoz v. Six Flags St. Louis

A clown at Fright Fest scared Carly Munoz so much she started running. She never checked to see if the clown chased her and also didn’t check to make sure she wouldn’t trip over a curb and injure herself, which she did.

She said Six Flags “failed to conduct actor activities in a safe manner.” But a Missouri appeals court ruled Munoz “was exposed to the exact risk she knowingly and voluntarily exposed herself to.”

Bartley v. Moran

A cautionary tale of alcohol and Halloween. John Bartley said he was assaulted by his friend at a Halloween party in the garage of Michael and Kelli Moran. Court records say Bartley and his friend were “heavily intoxicated” and the Morans told them to go home.

The friend left on foot, but Bartley took his car. He struck and killed his friend, Joseph Shoyrer, and a jury convicted him of manslaughter.

From jail, Bartley attempted to sue the Morans but was unsuccessful. He was sentenced to 17-30 years in prison.

Carr v. City of Springfield

And finally, a plea to take down your Halloween decorations. An Oregon man preferred to keep his up year-round, but a noose hanging from a tree in July wasn’t received well by a Black neighbor who posted it on Facebook and kickstarted a protest.

A Springfield cop investigated her complaint but declined to pursue any charges when he found out the decorations had been up for four years. The Halloween enthusiast did take down the noose, but a protest declaring the noose is a nuisance was held anyway.

Ashley Carr still found a reason to sue, targeting the city and the cop for violations of her constitutional rights. An Oregon federal judge shot down her argument a year ago.