Blogger Successfully Quashes Subpoena

Ares writes "In a follow-up to Blogger Subpoenaed for Criticizing Trial Lawyers, Katherine Seidel's blog indicates that not only has she successfully quashed her subpoena, but the lawyer issuing said subpoena is now under orders to appear and explain why the courts shouldn't sanction him for it. This should be interesting, because in addition to Ms. Seidel's subpoena in New Hampshire, the lawyer issued a similar subpoena to a doctor and a Harvard professor under similar circumstances."

Justice sure feels good

[spun]

I'm just wondering why, genetically speaking, it should feel so good to hear about justice being served? Justice, fairness, reciprocity, selflessness: these things naturally feel good to most people, while their opposites usually feel bad, even when they have absolutely nothing to do with us.

If we were truly selfish creatures, wouldn't the opposite be true? We would have evidence that we could get away with our selfishness, and that would feel good. It seems our genetics code for cooperative behaviors over selfish ones. Is this simply the selfish best choice for individuals, to cooperate with each other, or can genes code for behaviors that are detrimental to the individual but good for the gene pool overall?

Re:In Communist China

[Trails]

Tanks squash bloggers. No, really!

Fixed that for ya.

Ex Parte

[Anonymous Coward]

This must be why the RIAA does everything ex parte, so they don't get rulings like this...

For those who don't know, ex parte means that the other side isn't there. In RIAA cases, they misjoinder all defendants located at a single ISP together, and push for expedited discovery in an ex parte hearing and drop the case immediately after. This means that the alleged file sharer never gets a chance to respond to them in court because they don't find out in time.

Re:Society Strikes Back

[ScrewMaster]

I don't think there has ever been such an arrogant caste profession since the days of the Egyptian priesthood.

Sure we have. They're called "doctors", "politicians" and "Chief Executive Officers", respectively. Granted, many politicians are also lawyers, so there's some crossover but they all they tend to think just as highly of themselves. I will agree that, unlike the other three groups, doctors do provide useful if overpriced services. If all physicians suddenly disappeared tomorrow many of us would be in trouble, but if attorneys, politicians and "Chief Executive Officers" vanished from the face of the Earth most of us wouldn't even notice.

For sure there'd be a lot of nice homes and used luxury cars on the market.

Re:More important things

[Curunir_wolf]

Thank you for standing up for all the good lawyers in this country. It really troubles me that the bad ones give the other 2% a bad name.

I can't imagine what else I'd feed my pet alligators if the supply of lawyers ran out!

I hope you never get arrested for a crime you didn't commit or your kid isn't poisoned by some product made by a careless corporation.

Corporations are careless because their lawyers make them so expensive to sue, and ensure that the corporate officers are never held personally liable for unconscionable acts.

I hope you never get prosecuted or sued by the RIAA because your neighbor's son hacked your wireless router and used it to play with torrentz.

The RIAA is pretty much just a bunch of lawyers (oh - and lobbyists). Oops - most lobbyists *are* lawyers.

I hope your civil rights are never violated or that you never need the protection of bankruptcy court.

Why would I need protection of a bankruptcy court? Oh, yea, because there is someone threatening to sic their LAWYERS on me.

I hope you never have a problem with your income taxes, or a dispute with your business partner or get rear-ended by a drunk driver.

Yes, because income taxes are so complicated. Lawyers certainly had *nothing* to do with that. I just hope any business partner I have can negotiate rationally and doesn't decide to ... umm... sic a lawyer on me. I'd have to find a lawyer had give *him* my half of the business instead. You're right about the drunk driver, though. I'd want an ambulance chaser helping me with that because insurance companies are almost as bad as lawyers.

I hope you never have to set up a trust fund to care for a relative who is too ill to care for herself or have a dispute with your bank or have your identity stolen.

Actually, I had a relative that did set up a trust fund with a lawyer that was handling most of her finances. She died penniless, of course. The last I heard they thought the lawyer had left Bermuda and they were speculating he was in France.

I hope you never get married unwisely and have to divorce from a spouse who wants to hurt you as much as possible.

Because then I would have to deal with her lawyer?

I hope you never get overlooked for promotion because you are too old, or too black or too female.

Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. It said "My lawyer says I don't have a case".

It can be argued that lawyers do as much to protect our freedoms as the men and women in our military. Maybe more.

It can also be said that lawyers are the ones working to take away our freedoms. At least the guys in the military are allowed to shoot the enemy (without subsequently dealing with more lawyers).

People who think our lives and our country would be better without lawyers are as stupid as stupid gets.

I'm sure you could make a persuasive argument to that effect that a judge (still a lawyer) would agree with.

There are good lawyers out there that really do honest work and do not view themselves as God's gift to the peasants. But finding one makes you feel like Lot wandering the streets of Gomorrah. And our country might not be better off without them - but it might be better off without 95% of them.