Re: Ever Been Sued?

[Ty Sarna <tsarna @ endicor . com>]

In article <v03130384b0f73a3033d9@[207.167.80.70]> you write:
> doing him a favor, is really small. Especially when the lawyer quotes
> his hourly rate.

This assumes the guy has or will get a lawyer. Many of these nut jobs
think they're going to act "pro se", brilliant legal minds that they
are. 

This defeats the "tell me you're lawyer's name and I'll put him in touch
with my lawyer" (otherwise great because you don't even have to go out
and hire a lawyer unless he does first -- he has to spend money first). 
Instead, he says he's going to act pro se, and so please tell him your
lawyer's name (so now you're spending money, and he isn't -- assuming
you don't have a lawyer already.  Most list admins/newsgroup
moderators/etc, being reasonably nice folks who try to stay out of
trouble, don't). 

To the original poster, I hope this story will make you feel better, and
give the other list managers a hearty laugh:

I had a run in (my first, and I hope last) with one of the masters of
this genre a few months back. I won't mention his name, but some of you
may recognize him by his actions. He's one of the many who have
threatened Chris Lewis, but on finding out Chris is in Canada he wasn't
detered. Instead, he claimed that NAFTA allowed Chris to be prosecuted
_criminally_ for violation of the US's First Ammendment. I believe this
is what lawyers term a "novel theory of law". :-)

Anyway, said guy prefers to threaten federal criminal rather than civil
action. Much less worrysome, actually, since while he *might* find a
shyster who'd be willing to take a civil case (payment up front,
please!) or a court to let him go at it pro se, any prosecutor would
just tell him to shove it. I was threatened with prosecution for the
"Crimes of Conspiracy [to do what???] and Interstate Commerce [eh?]"
because I kicked him off my system, for using it to harass and threaten
action against a regional newsgroup hierarchy coordinator, for
cancelling off-topic messages trying to gather support for a lawsuit
against a city.  That's right, three levels of legal action! Wheee!

When I started ignoring him, his final message suggested he was going to
have me subpoenaed to federal court. A few days later, I received the
"sobpoena" by plain mail (in an envelope with no return address, and our
address in large type that I'm sure was meant to be intimidating, but
was so large it just looked silly). Included was a letter (again no
return address), threatening seizure of all our computer equipment if I
didn't reinstate his access.  The "subpoena" was a second or third
generation photocopy of the form for Summons in a Civil Action. It
read:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
			UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
				DISTRICT OF
				[left blank]

					SUMMONS IN A CIVIL ACTION

         [left blank]			CASE NUMBER: [left blank]

	      V.

       [me and my employer,
	  handwritten]

  TO: (Name and adress of defendant)     Punitive damages: $500,000.00
					 Etc. [handwritten]

         [left blank]


  YOU ARE HEARBY SUMMONED and required to file with the Clerk of this
  Court and serve upon

PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY (name and address)

      [left blank]

an answer to the complaint which is hereith served upon you, within 
[blank filled in with "20", handwritten] days after service of this
summons upon you, exclusive of the day of service. If you fail to do so,
judgement by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded
in the complaint.

[fill-in lines for signatures by clerk, deputy clerk, and date left
blank]

[Opposite side to be filled out by process server left completely blank]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Needless to say, I wasn't quite shaking in my boots. "Oh no, I've been
summoned to appear in United States District Court, for the District
of...  uh, what district was that again?"

That was the last I heard from him.