The Stouffer case

[serenadust]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Jennifer Piersol" <jenP_97 at y...> wrote:

> 
> I read through the entire judgment, and though I'm not 
> familiar with a lot of the legal jargon (jargon used in 
> a neutral way - simply describing language used in 
> certain professions), I'm simply stunned by the gall of 
> this woman.  How on earth can someone of any reasonable 
> amount of intelligence (not that I'm saying she has a 
> reasonable amount... after reading the judgment, I'm 
> convinced she doesn't) think that she'll be able to 
> prove her case with doctored evidence?  Does she think 
> that a big corporation like Scholastic, a millionaire 
> like J.K., and a multimedia giant like Time Warner are 
> going to spare any expense in exposing any kind of 
> misrepresentation on her part?  Hello!!!  ALL of these 
> people have a LOT of money they can spare to defend 
> themselves.  They can all hire people to dig up 
> original copies of material, people who used to work 
> for Stouffer, etc.  Stouffer must be mentally 
> deficient.


Hi Jen,
I'm certainly not a lawyer either, although I did have to take some 
business law in grad school.  My only real familiarity with this 
case was an article in the Washington Post outlining the Stouffer 
allegations and showing several examples of her...er... work.  These 
examples were said to be the foundation of her case, and after 
reviewing them I was amazed that the case ever made it to court.  
They were so weak that I can't imagine any attorney would take the 
case (although I guess that just having thought that, proves my 
naivete <g>).

My personal opinion is that Stouffer and her legal counsel expected 
the case to be settled out of court as a nuisance, and never really 
expected it to come to trial.  Wealthy corporations and individuals 
are often sued by the unscrupulous, who count on being paid just to 
go away, and because of the time and energy it takes to litigate, 
they are successful all too often.

Obviously Ms Stouffer mis-calculated in this case, and although I 
feel terrible that JKR was dragged through this (since it obviously  
upset her greatly), I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.

Jo Serenadust