[jacquesm]

Right because if some idiots in a country where you've never been get their paperwork wrong it should bankrupt you... Note that you're effectively arguing for your own book here, this shouldn't require a lawyer and it should have never gotten this far.

[NotYourLawyer]

I mean... mistakes get made. It shouldn't be hard to get this one reversed if that's all there is to it, but hiring a lawyer is absolutely the right way to make that happen. By all means, try to recover attorney's fees after the fact.

But sticking your head in the sand and complaining about it isn't going to get you very far.

[jacquesm]

This goes well beyond mistakes, it is utterly absurd that the judge would not look at this more closely absent a defendant in a country on the other side of the planet, especially when this kind of money is involved. It's not a $50 parking ticket.

Imagine yourself in their situation, having to defend a legal case in court in a place where you've never been to that has no bearing on anything you've done in your life. That makes the world's population open to being sued for profit in these courts because the courts simply don't do their job. A mistake is when you pass the pepper instead of the salt. This is ruining someone's life.

From TFA:

"Ms Luke has engaged an intellectual property lawyer in the United States, with an initial engagement fee of $US10,000 ($14,800), in a bid to have the rulings overturned and the damages retracted. "

"The single mother of four said the situation was taking its toll.

"The anxiety that this causes, not knowing if they are going to come and take our house, can they freeze my assets, can they get access to my bank accounts?

"We just don't know and it really is a case of guilty until I can prove otherwise.""

That engagement fee is on the low side and yet I think that 99% of the people that might get caught up in stuff like this have absolutely no way of paying that kind of money to correct something they have part in. Besides, the suggestion that you can recoup your legal fees is not really fair: in practice you won't be able to recoup all your fees and you certainly won't be able to recover your time or the stress.

[Affric]

Yep.

This is fundamentally unjust and classic bully boy behaviour by American courts and terrible corporate citizens.

[NotYourLawyer]

The American courts really do try to get stuff right, not bully random foreigners for no reason.

[Affric]

Questions of jurisdiction, evidence and costs all suggest otherwise.

This person has been dragged into an expensive American civil case .

She was clearly contactable as the corps had found her yet she was contacted with what any person who has any cybersecurity training would dismiss as a spam email.

The jurisdiction is a place she has never been.

This should case should have been thrown out, instead she got a summary judgement.

In Australia she could automatically be awarded costs at trial. Here she's going to have to counter sue.

And last but perhaps most significantly, it's clearly not her. Sure, we don't hear about any of the ones they knock back, but this shit would not even get close to getting up in a good legal system.

[NotYourLawyer]

Ok.gif

[NotYourLawyer]

Yes, the USA is the worst country in the world. Except for all the others.

[jacquesm]

I really can't connect your response to what I wrote.