To be filed under the new and continuing, “Ouch! That’s gotta hurt” series:
Photo District News Senior Editor, David Walker, in this week’s Newswire has spun the sad tale of what happens when a photographer and his lawyer goes after the ‘Big’ prize for the wrong reason. In this case, the prize was a $260,000.00 (USD) Copyright Infringement lawsuit. Unfortunately, the Judge thought the pair was making a frivolous claim against the defendant, and acting in bad faith, namely by refusing to settle the case in a fair, amicable, and reasonable fashion. In the legal system, this is one of the big no-no’s for an attorney, kinda like doctors chasing ambulances. Oh, wait; Lawyers chase ambulances. 🙂
Anyway; Judge says; Bad Move. Tosses the copyright infringement case out of court in 2002. Fast Forward; Judge now slaps the wrist of the photographer by ordering him to pay the legal bills of the party he had brought the suit against. If one slap = $1.00, imagine getting your wrist slapped slightly more than 388,000 times.
Read David’s excellent article at PDN.
What was the attorney (and photographer) thinking ? The image(s) was not registered. Makes you wonder about the “see an attorney” mantra, while you and I could have evaluated this case more soundly.