Washington -- You better watch out. You better not pout. But Santa might sue you for the cookies you leave out.

That's the fear of Mark Burita, spokesman for the Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition of restaurants and food companies. He says that if trial lawyers can sue on behalf of obese kids then Santa Claus probably could file lots of lawsuits against American families since he gets offered so many cookies on Christmas Eve.

There's no word on whether Kris Kringle has retained a lawyer to sue cookie-baking Americans but Burita isn't hedging his bets.

His organization is offering a "Christmas Cookie Liability and Indemnification Agreement" that includes clauses for Claus to sign so he won't sue you for failing to provide information about the cookies' ingredients or forgetting to warn him that eating too many cookies leads to obesity.

Burita admits it won't be easy explaining to your kids why Santa has to sign a legal agreement but figures it's a way to warn them about greedy trial lawyers.

Chimney-owners can get a copy of the forms at consumerfreedom.com.

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