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True costs of Online Defamation Case and is it worth pursuing

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quincy

Senior Member
... Unfortunately this was the information given to me by the person working on my case. As mentioned earlier, I was not satisfied about the work done and demanded a refund which was not given. You can look up "XXXX Investigation Services" in google. I have no intensions of making this up. They did run some standard background checks on my brother and found his address and stuff. That is about it. The consolidated list of 70+ sites which had malicious content in one huge pdf document and sent it to me. Worst $2500 ever spent and yes it was my fault
Yes, I have no doubt that this was the worst $2500 you have ever spent. I am sorry you were enticed into paying this investigative service to handle the matter for you instead of consulting with an attorney in your area.

... I have even asked my mom to intervene and asked her to compensate me through my brother but she refused.
The important thing is that you asked your mom to intervene. Perhaps she will talk to your brother later.

I thought the XXXX investigation service will find the evidence but unfortunately they didn't. I don't even know how to pursue getting evidence. I thought these sub poenas against "John Doe" on these websites such as google blogs and vimeo etc would force them to surrender ip address and remove my name from search results. Atleast thats what I was told. Thats the reason I went ahead with legal action. The attorny referred by this investigative guy works with them and now I know why I was referred. I didn't know what to do so I actually believed people who acted as if they will get things sorted out for me. I went on reddit and was scammed by some people claiming to find the culprit. I still believe that it is not that simple & easy for people to find evidence against online defamation. The process is very expensive & I wish people are informed in advance what they are getting into.
If you are defamed online and wish to "unmask" your anonymous defamer, you need a court to issue a subpoena. A court will generally not issue a subpoena until you present to the court a "prima facie" case, a pretty solid case that will withstand a motion to dismiss. In other words, you generally need to file a defamation suit against a "John Doe" defendant first and show the court that your suit has merit but, in order to proceed with the action, you need John Doe's real identity.

If your evidence of defamation is sufficient, the court will issue the subpoena, it will be served on the website and the website will comply with the court order by releasing the anonymous poster's account information. Prior to disclosing the account information, however, the website will notify the anonymous poster of the subpoena and the poster will have the opportunity to present to the court arguments why his/her identity should not be revealed ("quash" the subpoena).

Once you have the identity of your defamer, you can proceed with your suit.

Having an attorney who works with defamation law on a regular basis is generally your smartest option when considering a defamation lawsuit. Although the initial cost may be greater than with an attorney who is not familiar with defamation cases, the overall costs to bring a suit from start to finish will often be less.

But, yes, defamation actions can be expensive, especially when they involve online postings and when the posters are anonymous.

I need to have a back up plan before I do that. I am not going to make a decision in rush so that I get to pay two attorneys at a time. I am waiting for the results of the sub peonas. I need to know what course of action these websites take and then I will decide what to do.
The decision as to what to do now is up to you.

One of the pictures was from my wedding and was copyright. Two others were facebook pics taken with my iphone. Once again paid $250 at XXXXX.com professional take down service and google refused to take it down. Looks like facebook pictures even though private do not constitute as copyright protected. The wedding pic was not even on facebook and it was shared with family members only.
You do not have to pay to file a DMCA notice. These notices are easy to create and submit using information you should have on hand. I am sorry you fell for any organization that charges for filing a DMCA notice. See http://www.copyright.gov and do a DMCA takedown-notice search. This is all free.

Every thing has a reason. He is married to a woman for immigration purpose. My parents were unaware of it. I informed them and my mom had a heart attack because he is the youngest one and we usually do arrange marriage in our community. Mom got sick and my brother got pissed that I did this to him so he blamed my moms sickness on my actions. I guess he has really good friends who believed him and all of a sudden I am the bad guy. It is what it is.. Thanks for you advice.
I would say some things have a reason. Other things are unexplainable.

Good luck.
 
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tonimoroni

Junior Member
Yes, I have no doubt that this was the worst $2500 you have ever spent. I am sorry you were enticed into paying this investigative service to handle the matter for you instead of consulting with an attorney in your area.



The important thing is that you asked your mom to intervene. Perhaps she will talk to your brother later.



If you are defamed online and wish to "unmask" your anonymous defamer, you need a court to issue a subpoena. A court will generally not issue a subpoena until you present to the court a "prima facie" case, a pretty solid case that will withstand a motion to dismiss. In other words, you generally need to file a defamation suit against a "John Doe" defendant first and show the court that your suit has merit but, in order to proceed with the action, you need John Doe's real identity.

If your evidence of defamation is sufficient, the court will issue the subpoena, it will be served on the website and the website will comply with the court order by releasing the anonymous poster's account information. Prior to disclosing the account information, however, the website will notify the anonymous poster of the subpoena and the poster will have the opportunity to present to the court arguments why his/her identity should not be revealed ("quash" the subpoena).

Once you have the identity of your defamer, you can proceed with your suit.

Having an attorney who works with defamation law on a regular basis is generally your smartest option when considering a defamation lawsuit. Although the initial cost may be greater than with an attorney who is not familiar with defamation cases, the overall costs to bring a suit from start to finish will often be less.

But, yes, defamation actions can be expensive, especially when they involve online postings and when the posters are anonymous.



The decision as to what to do now is up to you.



You do not have to pay to file a DMCA notice. These notices are easy to create and submit using information you should have on hand. I am sorry you fell for any organization that charges for filing a DMCA notice. See http://www.copyright.gov and do a DMCA takedown-notice search. This is all free.



I would say some things have a reason. Other things are unexplainable.

Good luck.
Thanks for your valuable advice. I wish my 5k would have given me this advice but the defamation lawyers hardly get back to me when I ask them questions. I tell you those XXXX guys are only about money... :) Not only did I fell for this XXX service I took his advice when he said these guys are the best guys in regarding this stuff
 
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tonimoroni

Junior Member
Thanks for your valuable advice. I wish my 5k would have given me this advice but the defamation lawyers hardly get back to me when I ask them questions. I tell you those Vorys guys are only about money... :) Not only did I fell for this XXXX service I took his advice when he said these guys are the best guys in regarding this stuff
and yes I do think that my case has merit. Partly because I work as a consultant and people when hiring contractors dont want to go through months of background checks they do for hiring a full time guy. Usually couple of things in linkedin and google does it for them. So thats where I am getting hurt the most. Secondly, I have an green card immigration case pending with USCIS. When someone alleges that I am a terrorist and am a threat to national security not only it makes people around me uncomfortable it jeopardizes my immigration process. So these are my two strong arguments about my case.
 
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quincy

Senior Member
Thanks for your valuable advice. I wish my 5k would have given me this advice but the defamation lawyers hardly get back to me when I ask them questions. I tell you those XXXX guys are only about money... :) Not only did I fell for this XXXX XXXX service I took his advice when he said these guys are the best guys in regarding this stuff
I am afraid I know nothing of the service you used, so I cannot comment on it. But I am sorry it has not provided you yet with what you wanted or expected for the money you paid.

I tend to be leery of any service that charges for something that can easily be done by anyone for free. In fact, I think part of any good service is keeping costs down for a client by avoiding all unnecessary expenses.

The defamatory statements made about you are definitely more serious than I first imagined them to be so, yes, you could have a case with merit (but perhaps not a defendant worth suing).

Good luck. I hope all gets sorted out for you soon.
 
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tonimoroni

Junior Member
I am afraid I know nothing of the service you used, so I cannot comment on it. But I am sorry it has not provided you yet with what you wanted or expected for the money you paid.

I tend to be leery of any service that charges for something that can easily be done by anyone for free. In fact, I think part of any good service is keeping costs down for a client by avoiding all unnecessary expenses.

The defamatory statements made about you are definitely more serious than I first imagined them to be so, yes, you could have a case with merit (but perhaps not a defendant worth suing).

Good luck. I hope all gets sorted out for you soon.

Thanks.
My attorneys don't reply to my emails (I send them email about updates once every 3-4 weeks) I have to send a followup email to get a reply and they basically blame the delay on county courts etc. No body is giving me the timeline and road map for the work to be done. You have given me something that i am hoping they will do but they don't share what they are planning on doing in my case. I just get an invoice with the work done like document updates, changes follow-ups etc with 2-3 attorneys working in different stages of complain and thats about it. Can I get a recommendation for someone in TEXAS who is atleast upfront about the proceeding. I dont mind paying if I am informed in advance about the plan and how much it is going to cost. I feel like John Doe cases usually dont have much juice so its not much priority to defamation attorneys. The level of service I am receiving from these guys is absolutely crap. Wish I didn't listen to that guy from cyber investigation. He has not been honest about his dealings with these guys.
 
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tonimoroni

Junior Member
Oh. My misunderstanding. Sorry.

I would not have recommended such a service.

The way to handle defamatory postings online is to, first, contact the websites where the defamatory material appears and request the removal. Some sites will comply upon request alone.

To "unmask" an anonymous online poster, you will generally need to subpoena the account information. To do this, a court will generally require you file a suit against a "John Doe" and present a "prima facie" case, where the missing piece in the action in order for the action to go forward is the real name of the John Doe defendant. With the court convinced there is a case that can withstand a motion to dismiss, the court will issue the subpoena which will be served on the website. The website will comply with the court order and disclose the identity of the anonymous poster after notifying the poster of the subpoena. The anonymous poster has the chance at that time to "quash" the subpoena with good arguments to the court that his/her identity should not be disclosed. These arguments often fail.

Once you know the identity of your defamer, you can proceed with the case against him or her and either win or lose the case based on its merits.

To get to that point can be costly, both in terms of time and money. If you have an attorney working for you who is experienced in online defamation claims, you have an advantage in that the case will generally be presented well and it should be shorter - and this helps reduce costs. If you hire someone who doesn't know what he is doing, on the other hand, the initial costs may be less but the costs for the attorney to do the necessary research rise rapidly.

Again, for photos of you that are posted online, you file (or the copyright holder files) DMCA takedown notices and most sites will comply with the notice.

To reveal the identity of an anonymous online poster, you subpoena the website for the information.

For a defamation action, you hire a competent attorney who will work to get your defamer to compensate you for the injury to your reputation.

I think that having the derogatory/defamatory material moved to page two or three on an internet search of your name was smart. I also think if what was posted about you is so absurd as to not be believed, it probably won't be believed. There is a lot of nonsense posted on the internet and the person who posts it tends to look far worse than the subject targeted with the nonsense.

Send your current attorney or the investigative service the letter, as advised earlier, saying you wish to stop all service - if you wish to have them stop their work on your behalf.

Good luck.
I believe I missed this yesterday. Initially I contacted the webmasters of vimXX, MetaXXX etc and told them how can they have such BS videos and links about an individual and since my pictures were used without my consent and I disapprove of this material I need these links to be removed. Unfortunately, some websites did not reply. Ones who did came back and said I need to give them a court order to bring down a video or a blog etc.

The good thing is that my immigration attorney told me that USCIS does not look at google searches. Usually the agencies and Homeland security have their own data base with fingerprints and other information. They usually compare your fingerprints against those in their database so I shouldn't be worried. However, my biggest problem is people and coworkers at my client locations etc. While not many people are curious enough to google a new person they meet or do business with. Sometimes you have that nosy coworker and neighbor who wants to know more about someone. Usually such people are rare but I did come across them in the last 6 months or so because they started acting differently and some even confronted me about my background etc. These kind of rumors at work and neighborhood are the ones which bothers me. Since most people are quick to judge and based on the current circumstances you can't really blame them, it somewhat makes me & my family vulnerable to hostile attitude.

I am seriously thinking about sending letter to them but I need a backup. If someone can recommend me someone with good reference I can evaluate my options. The latest update I have is "Our local counsel has been in contact with the Court and expects to have the letters rogatory signed within the next couple of days (per the Court’s representation). Once we receive the signed documents, we will issue the subpoenas to the respective websites." Not sure what this means but I am assuming we are close enough.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
tonimoroni, the rules of the board prohibit our providing direct referrals. There is a Find A Lawyer section elsewhere on this site.
 

tonimoroni

Junior Member
tonimoroni, the rules of the board prohibit our providing direct referrals. There is a Find A Lawyer section elsewhere on this site.
Thanks and I understand. However, I can find such information anywhere online. I need referrals and actually need to talk to people similar to my case. Ironically, most of the defamation lawyers have good reviews online. :D
 

quincy

Senior Member
I believe I missed this yesterday. Initially I contacted the webmasters of vimXX, MetaXXX etc and told them how can they have such BS videos and links about an individual and since my pictures were used without my consent and I disapprove of this material I need these links to be removed. Unfortunately, some websites did not reply. Ones who did came back and said I need to give them a court order to bring down a video or a blog etc.
It seems my missing post was returned to its place in the thread. A lot of what is written in it I wound up repeating in a later post, though. :)

Copyrighted material that is published online without authorization from the copyright holder can be removed with a DMCA notice (for free) by the copyright holder. Therefore, if you are the photographer and the photo you took is published without your authorization, you have the ability to have it deleted. Material that is posted online that is about you but not created by you, on the other hand, will generally require a court order to be removed (although there are a few sites that will remove any objectionable content upon request).

The good thing is that my immigration attorney told me that USCIS does not look at google searches. Usually the agencies and Homeland security have their own data base with fingerprints and other information. They usually compare your fingerprints against those in their database so I shouldn't be worried. However, my biggest problem is people and coworkers at my client locations etc. While not many people are curious enough to google a new person they meet or do business with. Sometimes you have that nosy coworker and neighbor who wants to know more about someone. Usually such people are rare but I did come across them in the last 6 months or so because they started acting differently and some even confronted me about my background etc. These kind of rumors at work and neighborhood are the ones which bothers me. Since most people are quick to judge and based on the current circumstances you can't really blame them, it somewhat makes me & my family vulnerable to hostile attitude.
Anyone is vulnerable to online attacks on their character. It is a widespread problem on the internet. I am happy to hear that your immigration attorney has informed you that online searches are not done. Even when an internet search is done and an online assault against you is discovered, however, it will be the one who has launched the verbal attacks who is regarded with more distaste than the targeted person.

That said, the reputation of a person or a business can be severely harmed by what is published, which is why so much effort is often put into removing defamatory material and making the defamer held accountable.

I am seriously thinking about sending letter to them but I need a backup. If someone can recommend me someone with good reference I can evaluate my options. The latest update I have is "Our local counsel has been in contact with the Court and expects to have the letters rogatory signed within the next couple of days (per the Court�s representation). Once we receive the signed documents, we will issue the subpoenas to the respective websites." Not sure what this means but I am assuming we are close enough.
You can use the "Find a Lawyer" on this forum to locate an attorney in your area for "backup," as cbg advised, or you can go to the Texas State Bar Association website and find an attorney in your area that way: http://texasbar.com/

As a final note: Having copyrighted material removed from online and having defamatory material removed from online, getting subpoenas and finding out the name of your anonymous defamer, taking the matter to court and making your defamer compensate you for the reputational injury you have suffered as a result of their publications - ALL of this takes a lot of time. It rarely goes smoothly and it never goes quickly and it is always more costly than you imagine it could be at the start. I wish you good luck, though, in having all of this resolved as smoothly and quickly and with as little cost to you as possible.
 

tonimoroni

Junior Member
It seems my missing post was returned to its place in the thread. A lot of what is written in it I wound up repeating in a later post, though. :)

Copyrighted material that is published online without authorization from the copyright holder can be removed with a DMCA notice (for free) by the copyright holder. Therefore, if you are the photographer and the photo you took is published without your authorization, you have the ability to have it deleted. Material that is posted online that is about you but not created by you, on the other hand, will generally require a court order to be removed (although there are a few sites that will remove any objectionable content upon request).



Anyone is vulnerable to online attacks on their character. It is a widespread problem on the internet. I am happy to hear that your immigration attorney has informed you that online searches are not done. Even when an internet search is done and an online assault against you is discovered, however, it will be the one who has launched the verbal attacks who is regarded with more distaste than the targeted person.

That said, the reputation of a person or a business can be severely harmed by what is published, which is why so much effort is often put into removing defamatory material and making the defamer held accountable.



You can use the "Find a Lawyer" on this forum to locate an attorney in your area for "backup," as cbg advised, or you can go to the Texas State Bar Association website and find an attorney in your area that way: http://texasbar.com/

As a final note: Having copyrighted material removed from online and having defamatory material removed from online, getting subpoenas and finding out the name of your anonymous defamer, taking the matter to court and making your defamer compensate you for the reputational injury you have suffered as a result of their publications - ALL of this takes a lot of time. It rarely goes smoothly and it never goes quickly and it is always more costly than you imagine it could be at the start. I wish you good luck, though, in having all of this resolved as smoothly and quickly and with as little cost to you as possible.
Thanks once again. GooG is really adamant about removing fake blogs under my name. They want me to resolve this directly with the poster. That is the most useless stuff I have heard. If I had the means of getting it resolved with the poster I wouldn't be contacting google to start with. I am assuming my pictures that I took with my phone should have my copyright. I wanted to contact my wedding photographer about my picture and would have requested him to remove it but the best course of action I have learned from experience is that it is best if these links are left on their own and are not clicked by multiple people. So the more attention I divert towards these websites results in a) more negative publicity about me and explanation to give to people who are not close to me & b) more clicks means the link stays on first page and actually sometimes it might move up. So the brand marketing guys told me to stop clicking on these links. Do not share these links with multiple people online. The positive stuff is constantly being added and it will move up based on online marketing campaign. Eventually after 5-6 months the negatives might disappear unless someone intentionally starts a campaign to bring those links back to life. So yea the risk is always there and thats the reason a court order is deemed necessary.

On the contrary, if the law which passed in EU gets implemented here, I would be the first person to sign up for it since I would like my goog search presence to disappear for ever.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
I made a meme of Tom Brady and Gisele Bunchden (spell as you wish - I gave up after the third fail), including a rather mean use of the word "chicken". (She raises them and...I pointed out something else she may do. Use your imagination)


I'm genuinely intrigued though - it's my understanding that public figures have an extra hurdle to climb...yes?

(In my defense, at least they're not Cowboys or Ravens)
 

quincy

Senior Member
I made a meme of Tom Brady and Gisele Bunchden (spell as you wish - I gave up after the third fail), including a rather mean use of the word "chicken". (She raises them and...I pointed out something else she may do. Use your imagination)


I'm genuinely intrigued though - it's my understanding that public figures have an extra hurdle to climb...yes?

(In my defense, at least they're not Cowboys or Ravens)
Tom, Gisele and chickens, huh? Haha.

Public figures often have a more difficult time with defamation suits because, many times, the defamatory statements that are published about them relate to their roles as public figures. In these cases, there must be proof that the publication was made with actual malice (knowledge of falsity with an intent to harm). In cases involving private figures (or public figures in their private roles), there will be the lesser negligence standard of fault required (in most states, that is - not all).

But, in getting defamatory material removed from a prominent place online? Public figures probably have an advantage over private figures. Public figures do not have to work as hard to generate new items to replace the old, so derogatory/defamatory stories that are published online can be buried sooner, even if the stories cannot be removed sooner (or at all). And many public figures will have public relations teams and attorneys and other resources available to assist in combating lies. Most private figures lack these resources.

On the whole, I would say reputational injury is more severe in private figure cases than in public figure cases. There is less that a private person can do to recover from it.
 

tonim

Junior Member
New Update

Dear All,

I am trying to post an update to my case and get your valuable opinion. I will emphasize on opinion because I don't know what to do now. Unfortunately, I couldn't sign in with my previous account hence new id was created and I apologize for that. So the update is that after numerous follow-ups with county judge, my subpoena was signed and submitted to the various websites. I believe once the websites are identified, they notify the original poster. Out of all the websites contacted I believe only one promptly identified the user and his attorney contacted my attorney. He has been calling daily to get updates from my attorney because my attorney is busy (so am I) and we didn't get time to talk until today afternoon. So basically their attorney is asking if we are willing to do some sort of settlement. My attorney is inclining towards this option and saying I can get my legal fees back from him. He seems a bit too inclined to do that & I am not happy about that. Now provided I don't have monetary loss to prove and defamation cases don't really have compensation for emotional loss (not that I am aware of). I wanted to get feedback how to proceed further? So far the legal cost is between $10k-$12k which isn't much. I do have other costs associated with brand monitoring, online social media monitoring, cyber investigation etc that I paid on top of that.

The real question is that I want to know what options I have. If I say I want legal fees than if there is settlement, will I get the whole amount or will the lawyer charge additional fees or take a cut out of that? I don't care about $10k. How will I ensure this guy doesnt repeat the same thing again. This time he might cover his tracks effectively. As a matter of fact I want to take the guy to court but my family wants to move on and focus on better things. I would like to know any decent options so that I make sure this guy doesn't repeat this. I have also asked for motive from this guy. We have a name but I don't recognize him. Neither do I know him. So what to do and how to know if lawyer just wants to close the case or lets see if we can get more out of it. I am thinking his lawyer is giving some incentive to my lawyer or maybe my lawyer knows there is nothing in my case. I am not going to speculate. I believe the ball is in my court and I want to play my cards correctly without exploiting the situation. Legal fees does not justify the pain I went through. Also I haven't received update from the immigration. I am not sure if this idiot has made up lies about me to them and my case for green card renewal is still pending.

How does negotiations work in such cases. Or if I want to play hardball do I have a case or no? Also, is it true that lawyer who filed the subpoena has to be the one I have to proceed forward with or I can switch to a lawyer who isn't inclining towards settlement.

Please advise.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Dear All,

I am trying to post an update to my case and get your valuable opinion. I will emphasize on opinion because I don't know what to do now. Unfortunately, I couldn't sign in with my previous account hence new id was created and I apologize for that. So the update is that after numerous follow-ups with county judge, my subpoena was signed and submitted to the various websites. I believe once the websites are identified, they notify the original poster. Out of all the websites contacted I believe only one promptly identified the user and his attorney contacted my attorney. He has been calling daily to get updates from my attorney because my attorney is busy (so am I) and we didn't get time to talk until today afternoon. So basically their attorney is asking if we are willing to do some sort of settlement. My attorney is inclining towards this option and saying I can get my legal fees back from him. He seems a bit too inclined to do that & I am not happy about that. Now provided I don't have monetary loss to prove and defamation cases don't really have compensation for emotional loss (not that I am aware of). I wanted to get feedback how to proceed further? So far the legal cost is between $10k-$12k which isn't much. I do have other costs associated with brand monitoring, online social media monitoring, cyber investigation etc that I paid on top of that.
Thank you for the update. I am glad that the problem you had in signing in under your old user name did not deter your effort to post.

Defamation damages can include emotional injury. It depends on evidence that supports such an award and on all facts of the case.

Because you have an attorney, I would not want to second-guess his advice to you. I can tell you that most defamation suits (and lawsuits of all kinds) will settle instead of going to trial. Settling is often to the benefit of both parties.

The real question is that I want to know what options I have. If I say I want legal fees than if there is settlement, will I get the whole amount or will the lawyer charge additional fees or take a cut out of that? I don't care about $10k.
This can all be part of any settlement agreement and is something to address with your attorney.

How will I ensure this guy doesnt repeat the same thing again. This time he might cover his tracks effectively. As a matter of fact I want to take the guy to court but my family wants to move on and focus on better things. I would like to know any decent options so that I make sure this guy doesn't repeat this. I have also asked for motive from this guy. We have a name but I don't recognize him. Neither do I know him. So what to do and how to know if lawyer just wants to close the case or lets see if we can get more out of it. I am thinking his lawyer is giving some incentive to my lawyer or maybe my lawyer knows there is nothing in my case. I am not going to speculate. I believe the ball is in my court and I want to play my cards correctly without exploiting the situation. Legal fees does not justify the pain I went through. Also I haven't received update from the immigration. I am not sure if this idiot has made up lies about me to them and my case for green card renewal is still pending.
There is no way to ensure that the guy who defamed you will not defame you again. All a lawsuit or settlement will do is compensate you for injury that has already occurred, not what may occur in the future. With luck, any damages awarded in a suit or paid out in a settlement will convince the other party that it is smarter not to attempt to publish defamatory statements again.

How does negotiations work in such cases. Or if I want to play hardball do I have a case or no? Also, is it true that lawyer who filed the subpoena has to be the one I have to proceed forward with or I can switch to a lawyer who isn't inclining towards settlement.

Please advise.
You will want to rely on the advice of your attorney to decide if you should "play hardball" or not. You should go over with your attorney both the pros and cons of settling or going to trial. Your attorney is familiar with all of the facts of your case and there is no way a forum can assist you without having the same access to these facts. And we cannot do personal reviews here.

If you do not trust that your lawyer is working in your best interests, however, you can look for another attorney and ask this attorney to review your case as it currently stands.

You seem to have accomplished a lot since you last posted in May and that is good news. These suits often take far longer to reach a settlement stage. Good luck, tonim.
 
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tonim

Junior Member
Dear All,

Thank you for you feedback so far.

I thought this forum was to give free legal advice but sounds people are worried about sharing information once they find out that I have an attorney. I do have an attorney but we hardly communicate. I have been paying my invoices with little interaction with him. He calls me only when he gets approached by the defense team of John Doe and I haven't heard from him ever since. I don't want to call him or email him because I don't know what questions to ask. I get billed outrageous amounts for my stupid questions so I was wondering this forum would be helpful and so far it has been helpful. I need to ask the right questions from my lawyer under the assumptions that he should offer me advice as part of me being his client. Instead it sounds as if all my questions are billable to him. Is that how this works. Sorry I am new in this process.

Can anyone please tell me what the next course of action is for me?

1) After the subpoena has been filed and John Doe's attorney has reached out to my attorney, what are the next steps for me. My attorney hasn't gotten back to me yet and its been 3 weeks already. So I need to know what to do and how to proceed forward. I haven't received any advice thats why I came out here but I am not getting anything here as well :(

2) Does the lawyer who files the subpoena have to the ones who move forward with the case regardless of direction to proceed forward with? (settlement vs trial)

3) I think at this point there is no incentive for the lawyer since he already got his legal fees thats why he is not following up with me regarding the case? If I follow-up will I be charged for following up? All the lawyers out here can you please tell me how does billing work for your clients?

4) Surprisingly I have not gotten any advice from my attorney other than invoice. I was told that he would follow-up and find out what were my legal costs so far but he did not. All I get is an invoice from my attorney. I need to know if this is the right time to let him go and find someone who actually has the time for me? WHat is the process to do so. Should I sum up all my legal and other administrative online branding costs and send them to the lawyer? Would that be a good start?

5) How do I ask another attorney to review my case? Can the other attorney pick up my case or am I stuck with my existing attorney?

As you can see my existing attorney has not been helpful. There isn't enough for him in this case. He is getting paid and is least bothered if I get reimbursed or not. I need to find someone who can actually think about me in proceeding this forward.

Thanks for your advice. Please assist
 
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