LVAUGHNZ t1_ix58pcp wrote on November 20, 2022 at 9:10 PM

Reply to comment by theedgeofoblivious in Jack Daniel’s asks Supreme Court to hear dog toy dispute. Will they bite? by WREGnewschannel3

people who waste time and money with silly lawsuits should be fined or punished

sighthoundman t1_ix5fixr wrote on November 20, 2022 at 9:57 PM

They are.

The difficult question is "What is the line between frivolous and raising a valid objection, even if unlikely to win?" In much of the world, you don't want to bring a lawsuit because of "loser pays" rules, meaning that if you lose, you have to pay for the winner's attorneys.

The bar to being found frivolous is fairly high. A much lower bar is set by the defense attorneys, who simply file a motion for dismissal. "We understand how losing his wife in this tragic accident is a severe blow to Mr. Plaintiff, but we believe that it cannot possibly be our fault because we were merely the auditors for the company he claims is at fault."

The easiest way to get your claim dismissed, and your lawyer disbarred, and have to pay for the other side's legal costs, is to have your lawyer get caught lying to the court.

LVAUGHNZ t1_ix5fy1d wrote on November 20, 2022 at 10:00 PM

You can at least agree that some of them are obviously frivilous right? I worked at a court deposition office years ago and we had a lady paying out the ass trying to sue the US gov because "the poor relations with North Korea was causing her stress".

themehboat t1_ix63htl wrote on November 21, 2022 at 12:54 AM

Just out of curiosity, what did she want us to do about it?

LVAUGHNZ t1_ix695ps wrote on November 21, 2022 at 1:39 AM

I dont know I didn't really read it, she just wanted money and proclaimed the stress that her family was living there was causing health issues and she tried to cash in on past "damages" and future "damages". I was in charge of scanning all the printed documents to make digital and physical copies and I rarely read the text. There was one where some smaller company was suing blizzard for allegedly copying their netcode for world of warcraft. Sometimes it was horrific car accidents with pictures from the scene.

themehboat t1_ix69uyj wrote on November 21, 2022 at 1:45 AM

That’s a pretty idiotic way to try to get a windfall.

Nop277 t1_ix75y4b wrote on November 21, 2022 at 6:50 AM

Idk if it was related but that reminds me of that time some company sued not just Blizzard but pretty much every MMO claiming they had a copyright on any system where someone communicates via text in a game. The litigants were known copyright trolls and I'm pretty sure it got chucked out.

sighthoundman t1_ix6d1y7 wrote on November 21, 2022 at 2:10 AM

No doubt. I can sue Greg Abbott because he signed a bill that causes me emotional distress.

The state of Texas employs tons of lawyers. (Literally. A ton of lawyers is somewhere between 20 and 40 people.) They go to the office and work. It costs Texas literally nothing to file a motion for dismissal and the fact that I, with no formal legal training, can think of six reasons to dismiss this case without even stretching my mental muscles, means that the lawyers can probably think of 60. Their motion will be granted, and the case will (I hope: I've heard bad things about Texas judges, which I'm sure are entirely fabricated) be dismissed "with prejudice". (That means I can't bring the same lawsuit again.)

But one of my favorite examples of a "frivolous lawsuit" is the Stella Liebeck (McDonald's coffee) case. She asked originally for her medical bills to be covered. (Because they had done it for previous burn victims from spilled coffee, they had already established that they knew the coffee was dangerous and they were liable for injuries.) They refused, so she sued. Her lawyer convinced the jury that the appropriate award was "3 days' coffee sales". (Apparently logic is not required in courtrooms.) $105 million. Whatever the final settlement was (it's sealed), we do know that it did not involve the lawyer working for free, and it was less than $105 million.

Was that lawsuit frivolous? (For any foreign readers, hospital treatment in the US is far from free. There is essentially no chance of a company being put out of business, or an executive jailed, for safety violations. The only downside to bad behavior is lawsuits. It's essentially private enforcement of the laws.)