Prenda Gets Hit Hard With Contempt Sanctions For Lying To Court

walterbyrd writes: Team Prenda has been beaten up by the courts once again. Given all of the flat out deceit, it's actually a bit anti-climactic that the court has ordered sanctions of just $65,263 against Steele and Hansmeier for contempt of court. As for the obstruction of discovery, the court orders Duffy and Steele to pay Booth Sweet's costs, which the lawyers are told to submit. Some people are still wondering why none of this pattern of deceit, lying and abuse of the court system has not resulted in anything more serious.

Comments

Popehat

[maroberts]

If you want an amusing yet informative read on Prenda's exploits, Popehat is the place to go

Prenda?

[hooiberg]

I am so ignorant to have absolutely no clue what this is about? What is this 'Prenda' of which you speak?

Re:Prenda?

[tiberus]

Ditto . . .

Prenda Law a.k.a. Team Prenda

Prenda Law, also known as Steele | Hansmeier PLLP and Anti-Piracy Law Group,[3] was a Chicago-based law firm that ostensibly operated by undertaking litigation against copyright infringement, but was later characterized by the United States District Court for Central California in a May 2013 ruling as a "porno-trolling collective"[4]:2 whose business model "relies on deception",[4]:8 and which resembled most closely a conspiracy[4]:FOF.1 p.3 and racketeering enterprise,[4]:p.10 referring in the judgment to RICO, the United States Federal anti-racketeering law.[4]:p.10[5] The firm ostensibly dissolved itself in July 2013 shortly after the adverse ruling[6] (although onlookers describe Alpha Law Firm LLC as its apparent replacement[7]), while in 2014, ABA Journal-Law News described the "Prenda Law saga" as entering "legal folklore".[8] [...]

My head hurts now

Re:Prenda?

[MozeeToby]

TL;DR.

A group of lawyers who set up a system of shell companies to send out settlement records to people downloading illegal pornography. The lawyers were utterly eviscerated when one judge and defending attorney finally said "what's this then?" and starting looking into their actions.

Highlights include:
Shell companies set up using other people's identities without their knowledge.
Sending out settlement letters for works they don't own the rights to.
Setting the settlement price at just below the cost of an adequate defense.
Failure to show up when summoned to court.
Lying to the court... so... so many times.
Not paying the settlements levied against them.

And this wasn't a single court hearing. This was over dozens of court appearances over a timespan of well over a year. They continue to dig the hole they find themselves in deeper and deeper. The saddest part of the whole mess (other than all the people that they bilked out of thousands of dollars) is that they still haven't been disbarred.

Re:why haven't they been disbarred?

[bernywork]

I do believe this is in the works, they have been referred, but the court can only judge this case. It can't disbar them, that's the bar associations job.

Re:why haven't they been disbarred?

[gstoddart]

AFAIK, it's not the court who does the disbarring, it's the Bar Society -- which is the professional organization.

I think that now the Bar Society might start taking a look.

But I think it's fairly plain that Booth Sweet and John Steele are lying bastards who have been using the courts for their own profit and generally being dishonest assholes, so hopefully whoever does have authority over the disbarring gets on with it quickly.

Basically they ran a shakedown racket, repeatedly lied to the courts, and lied to the courts in the investigation about lying to the courts.

A credit to their profession as a bunch of oily, thieving bastards.

Hansmeiers' father heads the MN Ethics Committee

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously.