Judge Tells RIAA To Stop 'Bankrupting' Litigants

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Boston judge who has consolidated all of the RIAA's Massachusetts cases into a single case over which she has been presiding for the past 5 years delivered something of a rebuke to the RIAA's lawyers, we have learned. At a conference this past June, the transcript of which (PDF) has just been released, Judge Nancy Gertner said to them that they 'have an ethical obligation to fully understand that they are fighting people without lawyers ... to understand that the formalities of this are basically bankrupting people, and it's terribly critical that you stop it ...' She also acknowledged that 'there is a huge imbalance in these cases. The record companies are represented by large law firms with substantial resources,' while it is futile for self-represented defendants to resist. The judge did not seem to acknowledge any responsibility on her part, however, for having created the 'imbalance,' and also stated that the law is 'overwhelmingly on the side of the record companies,' even though she seems to recognize that for the past 5 years she has been hearing only one side of the legal story."

Comments

Re:With friends like her ....

[pudgywudgy]

Replace 'lawyer' with 'coder' and tell me if your sentences still work out the same way.

Which candidate wouldn't take public financing?

[unassimilatible]

The way American campaigns are financed it's a wonder we have any freedom at all.

John McCain asked Barack Obama to take a pledge to take public funds, which would limit private contributions. Obama agreed, then broke the pledge once he realized how much more money he could raise from lobbyists.

And guess which lobbyists really, really like Obama?