Day: March 28, 2019

Signs of Michael Avenatti’s lack of legal prowess abound…..

There are many kinds of lawyers such as the good defense lawyer that keeps his clients out of trouble before trouble happens or the no nonsense Plaintiff’s lawyer that skillfully guides a case into the Courtroom where the playing field is level. In my years doing Slabbed I’ve found there is another kind of lawyer, the kind that freelance and attempt to take shortcuts while mostly crashing and burning, often to the detriment of their clients. There were multiple signs that Michael Avenatti fits into the last category as a lawyer that was adept at using the media while failing to see longer term ramifications of his actions on his clients. We got the first hint of that late last year:

Stormy Daniels Ordered To Pay Trump $293,000 In Fees In Defamation Lawsuit ~ Jessica Taylor

Earlier this week Eriq Gardner wrote an excellent article on Avenatti’s tactics that is well worth the read. Avenatti appears to be a very effective advocate for one person only, himself. I’ll grant its possible I am missing something but I think not.

Thursday Afternoon Miscellany: Clovis Reed’s Libel Suit against Double D, Others Crashes and Burns

The good word came down on Tuesday when Judge Ozerden ruled on a Rule 41 voluntary dismissal motion filed by Reed after he settled with the City of Diamondhead’s insurer. I frankly never understood why the private citizens were included by Reed in his Section 1983 lawsuit against the City and once that count was settled it opened the door for the Court to punt the entire case, which it did. Reed could in theory refile the libel action in Circuit Court but he’d be throwing good money after bad based on his federal court complaint. Slabbed’s archival post on this topic can be found here. Judge Ozerden’s order of dismissal is embedded below:

Reed v Diamondhead Doc 47 by Slabbed on Scribd

Moving right along since the archival post also covered the Marquar Section 1983 lawsuit against the City of Bay St Louis, Mike Favre and Lonnie Falgout I took a peek at the docket of that matter while I was on PACER. Motions to Dismiss were filed late last fall and there has not been a docket entry since. I suspect a ruling on those Motions will be forthcoming shortly.

BMI is on the prowl…..

Along with a host of other Performing Rights Organizations such as ASCAP.

BMI sues Mississippi nightclub over music licensing. Owner calls fees legal ‘extortion.’ ~ Alissa Zhu

If you are in an organization whose business model relies on jukeboxes or cover charges for DJ’s playing songs especially, heads up:

Prairie Dog Washington DC 1.jpg
Prairie Dog popping its head out of its burrow in response to a kerfuffle. By Aaron Siirila, Via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 2.5, [Link to original photo]

Without going into a copyright law treatise the bottom line here is you better be paying your licensing fees* or you’ll learn the hard way as Freelons Restaurant, Bar & Groove in Jackson is fixing to find out. One thing its not is extortion in any way shape or form. Continue reading “BMI is on the prowl…..”