Ah-Ha! A Scammer Thwarted!

[dr_phil_physics]

An Update On A Vanity Press/Agent/Publisher/Whatever

Having just posted about staying away from Making Light because I get sucked in for too much time... I went and glanced at Making Light's front page. And found this gem:

But what of the lawsuit? The one of which the judge said, “This Court concludes and finds that this case was brought in bad faith by the plaintiffs for the mere purpose of causing great inconvenience and financial costs to Crispin and Strauss (as set out in Fletcher’s pre-lawsuit e-mails to the defendants, Crispin and Strauss). This case is frivolous and this Court finds so, finds that the two plaintiffs and their lawyer, Jerrold G. Neeff, knew it to be frivolous before it even commenced.”

The Context

In my earlier post about the War of the Words first novel contest, I got an anonymous comment from someone glowing about their first published novel. When I looked the book up, I discovered that they'd been scammed by a vanity press, Eloquent Books, part of a larger operation which SFWA's Writer Beware had been warning about for a long time. And Crispin and Strauss of Writer Beware had been sued. And the court threw it out and says the defendants can recover legal expenses.

This stuff is so hard to wade through and tough on the courts, that it's good to see The Forces of Good Triumph Over The Forces of Evil once in a while.

And though I doubt my anonymous commenter, whom I could name but I shan't, probably never came back after either plugging their novel or reading my reply saying they'd been scammed by a vanity press -- I hope they read about this. The Florida Attorney General is investigating. Maybe they can get some of their money back?

Dr. Phil

Comments

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

wonder how much the judge smacked them for filing a frivolous suit and wasting the Court's time & money. To say nothing of the fact that the defendants should now be entitled to attorney's fees for being forced to respond to it!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Don't think the numbers have been decided yet, but:

On July 31, 2009, the Court granted Writer Beware’s motion to recover legal fees and expenses incurred in defending the suit, ruling Fletcher/TLAG’s claims insubstantial, frivolous, and not advanced in good faith

Dr. Phil