Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Kimberlin Lawsuits Against Bloggers; Legal Briefs Make For Interesting Reading

I probably read W.J.J. Hoge's blog "Hogewash" more than any other lately.  Hoge is an educated and refined gentleman with a nice sense of humor, and his commentary on Brett Kimberlin's federal and state lawsuits is compelling.   Another site that deals with these lawsuits is that of Aaron Walker, at his blog "Allergic to Bull."  Both of these sites often publish links to legal briefs submitted for these cases.  I read them all.

It appears that the courts, both the federal one and the Maryland court, will allow the suits to go forward.  In fact, Marlyand has already denied all defendant motions to dismiss the case, but the federal court has not yet ruled on similar motions before it.  However, whether granted or denied, these motions to dismiss have been interesting and informative.  Courts have a legally-mandated prejudice in favor of plaintiffs, and must assume that the plaintiff's accusations are plausibly true, to be proven or disproven at trial.  

Most of the legal briefs associated with these two cases have been posted on Scribd or Pacer.  Pacer is an online database for federal filings.

In my humble layman's opinion, Brett Kimberlin's complaints and rationales are specious and implausible in the extreme, and he should lose both lawsuits.  However, this won't occur until many thousands of dollars in legal fees have been incurred by the defendants, and hundreds of hours spent studying legal briefs, claims and counter-claims.  

Lawsuits are ruinous, that's what these suits are really all about.  And, unlike homemade bombs of Tovex, they are legal.

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