Everyone behind the failed clown school that was Prenda Law deserves what’s happening to Paul Hansmeier. Unfortunately, it appears Hansmeier is taking the most damage from the fallout of Prenda’s disastrous copyright trolling… or at least he’s the one doing most of his suffering in public.
Of course, it’s his own fault. Rather than get out of the trolling business, Hansmeier doubled down. He swapped porn stars for wheelchairs, pursuing small businesses for Americans with Disabilities Acts violations. Fronting as a public interest, Hansmeier’s “Disabilities Support Alliance” is every bit the serial litigant Prenda was.
Now, it’s falling apart. As is Hansmeier himself. He’s currently facing possible disbarment for his participation in Prenda’s fraudulent behavior. He just lost one of his lawsuits against a Minnesota landlord for bogus ADA violations — one out of more than 100 lawsuits he’s filed against small businesses in the area. If Hansmeier’s asked to cough up legal fees, one wonders where he’ll find the money.
Tag: Prenda Law
Judge: Prenda lawyer must sell condo, liquidate assets to pay $2.5M debt | Ars Technica
A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered one of the men behind the notorious Prenda Law group to liquidate his assets. Paul Hansmeier must now sell his condominium, among other assets, in order to pay back $2.5 million of debts more quickly rather than having the case drag out for years.
Source: Judge: Prenda lawyer must sell condo, liquidate assets to pay $2.5M debt | Ars Technica
Legal regulators move in on Prenda’s Paul Hansmeier, who may get disbarred | Ars Technica
State bar regulators say Hansmeier hid money, lied in court.
Source: Legal regulators move in on Prenda’s Paul Hansmeier, who may get disbarred | Ars Technica
ARDC suddenly remembers that there is “D” in its acronym, starts disciplinary proceeds against John Steele | Fight Copyright Trolls
Today Jerome Larkin, Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, via Counsel Wendy J. Muchman and Marita C. Sullivan, filed a seven-count, 14,000-word complaint against Prenda’s John Steele alleging massive professional misconduct and fraud on the Court (the word “fraud” is used 17 times throughout the document).
Appeals court: Prenda lawyer who drained cash from his law firm must pay up | Ars Technica
“Piercing the corporate veil” of Paul Hansmeier’s law firm was justified.
Source: Appeals court: Prenda lawyer who drained cash from his law firm must pay up | Ars Technica
Prenda-linked copyright trolling lawyer Paul Duffy dead at age 55 | Ars Technica
The Cook County Medical Examiner has not yet declared a cause of death.
Source: Prenda-linked copyright trolling lawyer Paul Duffy dead at age 55 | Ars Technica
Team Prenda Smacked Around Again, Ordered To Pay Another $94,000 | Techdirt
It appears that the courts are now just piling on when it comes to Prenda Law. In the case of Lightspeed v. Anthony Smith, the court that was one of the first to call out team Prenda for “flat-out lies” and then blasted their weak attempt to plead poverty — leading, instead, to holding Team Prenda in contempt — has struck again. Having lost badly on appeal, the district court slammed the lawyers again, arguing that Team Prenda lied to the court and obstructed the discovery process concerning where they hid their money. It ordered sanctions of $65,263 and asked Smith’s lawyers at Booth Sweet to submit their costs to be added on to the total. Those costs came out to $94,343.51 — and Prenda lawyers John Steele and Paul Duffy complained that the number was unfair.
Source: Team Prenda Smacked Around Again, Ordered To Pay Another $94,000 | Techdirt
Judge finds Prenda Law attorneys in contempt, says they hid assets
Prenda Law was a “copyright trolling” scheme that sued thousands for downloading online porn, but the organization was buried under a wave of judicial sanctions beginning in 2013.
However, the three lawyers found to be intertwined with the organization—John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, and Paul Duffy—continue to get in hot water. On Friday, an Illinois federal judge reconsidered (PDF) a 2014 ruling in which he found there wasn’t enough evidence for a “contempt of court” finding. New evidence has convinced US District Judge David Herndon that Steele and Hansmeier should be found in contempt, and last week he ordered them to pay $65,263. That amount will get progressively larger, the judge warned, “if they continue their misdeeds before this Court.”
In addition, Steele and Duffy “engaged in unreasonable, willful obstruction of discovery in bad faith,” and Herndon ordered those two to pay for the defense’s discovery expenses, needed to unwind the complex financial records.
The three offending lawyers have until July 15 to pay up.
“We’re ecstatic because we finally got it, and this order gives them a set date by which to pay,” said defense lawyer Jason Sweet in an interview with Ars. “They didn’t have to obstruct discovery. It was always in their control. As the court found, they’ve shown a willingness to lie, and they’ll continue to do so unless they’re sanctioned.”
Prenda Lawyer’s ADA Shakedown Efforts Running Into Resistance From Public, Judges
Paul Hansmeier, having learned all he needs to know about practicing law from his years in the trolling trenches as part of Prenda Law, is now shaking down businesses using ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) lawsuits. This new (but not really) approach is slightly more palatable to the general public than attempting to fish a few bucks from randy torrenters via infringement lawsuits, but not by much. Those on the receiving end of these shakedown efforts don’t see much difference between Hansmeier’s new approach and the actions that netted him and Prenda Law sanctions from multiple courts.
Hansmeier still seems enthralled with the possibility of easy money, even if his experience with Prenda Law didn’t exactly pan out the way its principals hoped. Most are still in the process of extracting themselves from the flaming wreckage of Prenda, but they’re limping away, rather than strutting. Some may even face jail time for contempt.
Hansmeier and his non-profit (Disability Support Alliance) — which exists nowhere but the Minnesota business registry and as a nominal plaintiff in his 50+ ADA lawsuits — are running into roadblocks on Easy Buck Ave. One of the businesses he recently sued addressed his allegations by filing a $50,000 counterclaim for abuse of process and civil conspiracy.
Now, there’s more trouble on the way.
Cal Brink was tired of the lawsuits that just kept coming. Since the first suit claiming lack of disability access was filed more than a year ago, businesses in this southwest Minnesota town of nearly 14,000 people have been worried that they, too, would be hit.
Nine lawsuits have been filed here so far by the Disability Support Alliance, a nonprofit group formed last summer, including one against the only bowling alley in town. The owner said he will soon close rather than pay the DSA’s $5,500 settlement offer or make the $20,000 of changes needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Nobody fights them, because it’s going to cost you more to fight,” said Brink, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Now Marshall is fighting back. Working in concert with the Minnesota State Council on Disability, Brink developed an access audit for local businesses, allowing them to develop a plan to fix ADA issues and potentially to ward off litigation.
The plan has won the attention of the state Department of Human Rights, which hopes it could be used in other communities hit by serial litigation.
Since the putative goal is to improve access for the disabled, you’d think something called the “Disability Support Alliance” would be behind it. But the DSA isn’t about improving access. It’s about making money. Eric Wong, a member of the four-person-strong DSA says companies just need to pay it first and worry about complying with the law later.
His group “is currently in the process of producing a voluntary mass settlement agreement for those businesses in Marshall that are ready to confess to their crime, fully comply … and pay the damages/restitution that they are liable for under the law,” Wong said in an e-mail.
“The lawsuits will stop when there is no more access crime to prosecute,” he said. Many businesses “fail to understand that … we are now a zero tolerance state.”
Roughly translated: the trolling will continue until it’s run off the rails by the public or the courts. The lawsuits have already caught the eye of Hennepin County’s chief judge, which noted that the flurry of filings “raised the specter of serial litigation” and has ordered all DSA/Hansmeier’s lawsuits filed in this county be handled by one judge. This will probably prompt Hansmeier to take his “business” elsewhere, rather than deal with extra scrutiny from a judge who won’t have to connect the dots between multiple filings in multiple venues. With any luck, Hansmeier’s efforts elsewhere will be greeted with the same local resistance and judicial distrust.
Prenda Law And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Appellate Argument
Pregerson: And you’re a great lawyer.
Voelker: I appreciate you saying that, Your Honor.
Pregerson: I mean, it says so, right there on your web site.
It’s time for an update on the exploits of Prenda Law, that team of crooked, bumbling copyright trolls that’s been stomped by judges nationwide.
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in a Prenda case. Prenda’s principals have appealed Judge Wright’s catastrophic May 2013 sanctions order against them. It was worth the long wait for court-watchers — though probably not for Prenda.
Judge Wright faced complex problems: given that Prenda had dismissed its copyright-trolling case, what sort of sanctions power did he retain, and what sort of due process did he have to extend to the Prendarasts to invoke that power? On appeal, Team Prenda argues that Judge Wright’s sanctions and attorney fees award exceeded his power because (1) Team Prenda’s inviduals — like John Steele and Paul Hansmeier — were not properly before the court, and (2) Judge Wright effectively levied criminal sanctions, triggering procedural rights that he did not extend to Team Prenda. John Doe — the defendant who triggered this whole escapade, successfully represented by Morgan Pietz — argued that the bizarre and extreme facts supported all of Judge Wright’s order under applicable law.
It’s foolish to bet on specific outcomes based on oral argument. But that’s the kind of fool I am. I predict that the Ninth Circuit will uphold part of Judge Wright’s sanctions order — the part that represents a civil sanction — and send the case back to the trial court for a more complete hearing on criminal sanctions.
That’s not good for Prenda.