I've been holding this in for four days and I can't anymore!!!
In a sexual assault case, opposing counsel sent my clients a draft complaint threatening to sue them for "abuse of process." The allegation is that they hired an attorney (me!) with a vendetta against rich assholes
And opposing counsel found old articles and tweets from 2017 and 2018 like one where I'm talking to a documentary maker about his film about a deceased guy who extorted guys he coerced into making tickle films and I'm talking about how I'd drooled over the idea of suing that dead
guy. Another places he finds a quote from a profile about a federal prosecutor where I talk about hunting down anonymous stalkers who f*ck with my clients. Yeah, I hunt them down TO REPORT THEM TO LAW ENFORCEMENT.
Twats like this guy -- so insecure about his case that he threatens to sue a victim for selecting me as their attorney. It's just like, did you think that'd scare us into withdrawing the case? @marcorandazza
Also, to clarify, I @-ed my pal @marcorandazza not b/c he is the OC, but because he knows his way around adversaries using dirty deeds to drive a wedge between client and attorney. See his 9th Cir case Wynn v Bloom.
The good news is that this experience has inspired a 4-part CLE series coming soon in January about vengeful tactics by skeezy adversaries. details to follow.
And my CLE co-host? None other than anti-shadyshenanigan superlawyer, @susancrumiller. We're building a hot new #BodyOfLaw about fending off the asstorneys.
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Let's talk about victim impact statements. My greatest joy in life is listening to my client read his/her victim impact statement on the day of sentencing in court which occurs at the end of a traumatic criminal proceeding, traumatic criminal investigation, and traumatic crime.
It's the culmination of years of legal work and suffering. It's a moment for my client to finally address their offender and tell him/her exactly what hell they put them through and what it looked like. In their own words, in their own voice. Surrounded by the loves ones who
travelled through hell with them.The VIS is the first and only time the survivor is truly in control of a criminal proceeding. (Unlike in a civil case where the case is brought by the victim-plaintiff, in a criminal case, the government brings the case and the victim is just a
I'm so emotional to read about my former band teacher finally being held accountable. Everybody knew he was having a relationship with this student. He didn't hide it. They'd drive around in his red Mazda Miata convertible.
And everybody shamed her. I was in junior high at the time. On days he didn't feel like teaching, he'd have us watch musicals where the main character was named Maria, just like this student. Sound of Music, Westside Story. We all would laugh about that b/c we knew he was in
I have some new trolls who love to tell me that I've built a business off victims' pain.
Do these people know how f*cking idiotic they sound? At our firm we STOP victims' pain.
Funny that my male friends who are personal injury lawyers never experience this trolling. The trolls fixate on us b/c we're a women led firm serving a type of person (victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence) who a-holes don't want to have using our
justice system. I'm not looking for pity about the trolls. They're just mosquitos. I AM looking for the normalizing of victims suing predators, tech companies, schools, and other institutions that can be held liable or vicariously liable for harms.
I'm a victims rights lawyer. For every 1 case involving a rape tape on Pornhub, I have 50 involving rape and CSAM being disseminated on Insta and FB. Pornhub is far from perfect. But mainstream big tech is far worse and have a built-in mechanism for harassing victims directly.
So, yes, let's pressure Pornhub to clean up. And give victims the right to sue them. But don't blind yourself to the issue that the social media companies you use everyday are FAR worse even though they don't have "porn" in their title.
And in addition to fb and IG, You know how a lot of csam and child rape vids gets streamed? FB and Skype and more recently, Zoom. Stored and shared? Dropbox and Amazon servers. Solicited? Discord, Kik
I use some profanity to discuss @ grindrs response to Herrick's enormous efforts to get help. Over a thousand strangers came IN PERSON for sex. This was not a content-based suit 1/ newyorker.com/tech/annals-of… via @NewYorker
The issue was not the words in the profiles. It's that the profiles kept coming up, offender was using geolocation and chat to direct them to Grindr, and Grindr didn't have the technology or controls to stop that predictable problem. 2/
Lately Grindr has been responding to articles about Herrick and listing these magnificent efforts they were making to help. Well, it didn't ACTUALLY help. So who cares. But also, they didn't tell us that. And the strangers kept showing up. 3/
Here’s an idea: an apology on the @EFF website to victims who you all treat as the sacrificial lambs of free speech
My crystal ball says @Eff will pay its penance by building out a hot lil dep't dedicated to tackling the novel new problem of online harassment and hate speech. Handily it will score lots of @WIRED profiles and internet hero awards and attract big tech money, diverting more