
Bruce Perens Seeks Mandatory Award of Legal Fees vs. Open Source Security Inc - OMGWTF
https://perens.com/2018/02/08/bruce-perens-seeks-mandatory-award-of-legal-fees-for-his-defense-in-open-source-security-inc-and-bradley-spengler-v-bruce-perens/
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rhizome
A little background:
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/08/bruce_perens_grsecu...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/08/bruce_perens_grsecurity_anti_slapp/)

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Osiris
Why should it cost $500k to defend oneself against a frivolous lawsuit with no
legal merit?

What I'm trying to ask is why is our legal structure in the U.S. setup in such
a way that simply filing a suit against someone immediately puts a significant
financial burden on the defendant?

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pessimizer
Let me tell you about bail...

Our legal system is mostly about wealth, unless it's a dispute between two
people of vaguely equal wealth.

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pcwalton
Glad to see that the court reached the correct result. Nobody is allowed to
use the court system to threaten and harass opponents for exercising their
free speech rights. It doesn't matter how talented Spender is: those who use
the court system for bullying deserve to face consequences.

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Lazare
Seems fair. I'm sure Spengler really didn't like Perens comments, but abusing
the legal system to shut up people saying things you don't like is very wrong,
we (thankfully) have laws which punish people who try this in extreme cases
(like this one), and Spengler knew (or should have known, before filing his
suit) that these laws existed and how they worked.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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neveroffensive
Can anyone speak to how likely it is a case like this will succeed? It seems
like abuse of the court system has become more rampant, especially with the
emergence of patent trolls.

How often are people able to recuperate expenses incurred while defending
against a frivolous suit? How much additional legal work is required to
actually seek reparations like this? Is it judged as part of the original
case, or is it a separate lawsuit?

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pcwalton
It depends on the state. California is one of a few states that has an anti-
SLAPP statute that allows for award of legal fees under certain circumstances.

Popehat has a good explanation: [https://www.popehat.com/2012/06/07/why-yes-i-
am-into-slappin...](https://www.popehat.com/2012/06/07/why-yes-i-am-into-
slapping/)

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rwmj
What happens if the plaintiff loses but cannot afford to pay the defendant's
fees?

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JoshTriplett
Same thing that happens if a defendant loses and can't afford to pay court-
ordered damages.

Note that some court-ordered damages can be discharged with bankruptcy and
some cannot; I don't know the full details of categorization there. But in the
absence of bankruptcy, the payment has to happen at some point by some means.

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rwmj
Well someone goes bankrupt. But the lawyers presumably still want to get paid
so does their client have to pay the difference?

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philipodonnell
The law firm will have a claim on the assets during backruptcy. They usually
get paid before other creditors, but not sure where they rank vs the govt

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shaki-dora
That’s only true for the law firms working on the bankruptcy itself. The
justification is obvious: otherwise, it would be impossible to have bankruptcy
lawyers.

Standard claims from a lawyer you once hired go into the same pot as your
gardener’s.

