Maybe someone could be sued around here.

[Mike Haven]

I was browsing Lori's new site and happened to follow what I thought must be an advertising link set up by a pimp.

But it led to this:

Have a complaint? Got a few million dollars?
A group of aquarium hobbyists who frequent the Internet Aquatic Plant Digest have been sued in Federal Court for $15,000,000 by Robert Novak d/b/a petswarehouse.com.

Usually, this would be something you'd just glance over, but what if you weren't happy about a service from a company? Wouldn't you want to tell your friends and family about it so they won't have the same experience? What if you did and suddenly, the company SUES you for having an opinion?

What are we talking about? Read more about it here...

Protect your consumer rights and your freedom of speech!

The following excerpt, written by John Benn, is posted in full at http://216.168.47.67/psw/Fund.htm.

"A group of aquarium hobbyists who frequent the Internet Aquatic Plant Digest have been sued in Federal Court for $15,000,000 by Robert Novak d/b/a petswarehouse.com. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. All of the defendants reside outside of New York. The lawsuit involves allegations of defamation for certain messages that were posted to the Aquatic Plant Digest.A number of the named defendants have no liability insurance which will cover this lawsuit. As New York is one of the most expensive jurisdictions for handling litigation, a special defense fund has been set up to help defray the legal expenses involved in the lawsuit. It is estimated that preliminary legal expenses will run about $15,000 for the group. If the case proceeds to trial, attorney's fees and expenses will run upwards of $50,000.To date a number of fellow aquarists who are also attorneys have volunteered their time on a pro bono basis. The defendants will still need to retain local counsel to defend them in the lawsuit."

[end quote]

Okay, we don't know about you, but if you check out that website and discern the facts for yourself, we think you'll find your opinion is the same as ours. This lawsuit is BOGUS and very bizzarre!. It is an affront to human decency, and should NOT be allowed to happen! A consumer has a valid right to complain about bad service. A vendor should NOT sue its customers for telling people about VALID bad experiences. The deeper you dig into this issue, the more frightening it becomes! They have amended the complaint to include many owners of websites who have LINKED to the defense fund! I urge you to check out the facts and support this defense fund in any way that you can (money, emotional support, professional support).

(From http://www.myfishbox.com/lawsuit.cfm)

Now then - who's going to start the ball rolling here? Who has been slagged off recently that might just be insane enough to try starting a lawsuit?

[Terry]

My brother was stopped at a red light in New York City when he was hit from behind , pushing him into the car in front of him. Both of the other drivers sued him. When he asked them why, the reply was so simple it should have been expected: “You’re the only one with insurance.”

[Wake up CALL]

Any group of people who take the time to post at length about aquatic plants should be smart enough to have liability insurance ( this goes for degenerate poker players as well) ( I did not want my response to be as off topic as the original post). I say sue their plants off!! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Mike Haven]

if you think that was off topic, then you didn't get the point of the post - but, no matter

our insurance needs are maybe a bit different in the uk, so i'm not really sure about personal liability insurances

are you implying that you can freely libel someone (if that is what the court decides was the case here, say) and then be protected from financial loss by an insurance policy?

[C M Burns]

The US legal system really sucks in this regard (oh no I think the FBI is knocking). Basically you can sue anyone about anything, if someone sues u they may not have a case but you still have to pay a lawyer to defend u in court regardless of who wins and it is hard to get reimbursed for this, not to mention the time. So basically it's lawerers creating a system to artificially crerate the need for lawers to get payed, and then they started insurance companies so u can pay money to pay the lawyers who created the need for the insurance in the first place, it's crazy.
I hear the UK has a loser pays all legal fees system (correct?) which makes a whole lot more sense since you actually need a real case.

[tiltboy]

[ QUOTE ]
are you implying that you can freely libel someone (if that is what the court decides was the case here, say) and then be protected from financial loss by an insurance policy?

[/ QUOTE ]
That would depend on the insurance policy but, sure, that could happen. It is no different from any kind of insurance you might buy. If you have an accident and you are shown to be negligent your insurance policy may still cover you.

[whiskeytown]

I've heard about this guy...he's a crank who was filing lawsuits left and right -

however, he's lost a couple major lawsuits, lost his domain name, and has filed for bankruptcy [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...153&tid=99

[Mike Haven]

tiltboy - i take your point, and i agree that in effect it is your negligence that you are protecting against with an insurance policy - but i'm having difficulty equating libelling someone (in most normal cases) with being negligent - libel can be pretty black or white - like whether i smacked someone in the nose or not - and as far as i know i can't buy a policy that will pay damages if i smack someone on purpose

C M Burns - i'm not sure it is necessarily a loser pays all fees system - you hear of frivolous cases winning a penny damages but then having to pay their own legal fees - so i think it must be up to the judge evaluating the worthiness of the case

whiskeytown - good link - well found - thank you

[Ted Geisel]

... sorry, but other than skillpoker.com, I do not think any site is stupid enough to walk into Federal Court in the US ... so you're probably safe from a lawsuit, so long as you bash just the site itself, not the players.

(skillpoker deserves special mention only because they claim to actually be operating from within the US. Talk about laying yourself open for suit/counterclaim, RICO or otherwise.)

Ted "No Fed" Geisel

[aceswild]

Hey. Rico only applies to organized crime such as the mafia.

Get your facts straight