Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
1–10 of 107 posts
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#2Is it an investment? Or more like a gamble, bet, or speculative movement?
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#3Yes of course you should. This is no different than a lawyer taking a case on contingency. It provides people without the means to hire a legal team a way to take on more well-financed opponents.
While abuse of the legal system is certainly a problem, the way to solve it is not limit financing. That only increases economic inequality. It's like saying we can solve the SF housing crisis by banning mortgages.
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#4Yes of course you should. This is no different than a lawyer taking a case on contingency. It provides people without the means to hire a legal team a way to take on more well-financed opponents. While abuse of the legal system is certainly a problem, the way to solve it is not limit financing. That only increases economic inequality. It's like saying we can solve the SF housing crisis by banning mortgages.
Didn't Microsoft do this with SCO vs Linux though? In that case, it was big incumbent interested in squashing a scrappy start-up disrupting the industry.
In a case like that, it seems like a tool to perpetuate economic inequality.
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#5Does anyone else think that this product could use a more professional video?
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#6Good thing we also have the First Amendment.
Citizens United v. FEC -- majority opinion essentially said that money is free speech ("Because spending money is essential to disseminating speech..."). And spending that money to fund litigation seems like a very strong kind of speech, whether or not its motivated by greed (profit).
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#7Yes of course you should. This is no different than a lawyer taking a case on contingency. It provides people without the means to hire a legal team a way to take on more well-financed opponents. While abuse of the legal system is certainly a problem, the way to solve it is not limit financing. That only increases economic inequality. It's like saying we can solve the SF housing crisis by banning mortgages.
Didn't Microsoft do this with SCO vs Linux though? In that case, it was big incumbent interested in squashing a scrappy start-up disrupting the industry. In a case like that, it seems like a tool to perpetuate economic inequality.
Yes, but how do you stop that? Isn't any investment in a company involved in litigation implicitly an investment in the litigation? (Or at least a bet that the litigation isn't material to their business.)
The whole SCO vs IBM case was pretty unscrupulous, sleazy, and opportunistic, I agree. I'm not arguing that I have the solution to stop abuses like this. I'm saying that limiting financing is not it.
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't Microsoft do this with SCO vs Linux though? In that case, it was big incumbent interested in squashing a scrappy start-up disrupting the industry. In a case like that, it seems like a tool to perpetuate economic inequality.
Yes, but how do you stop that? Isn't any investment in a company involved in litigation implicitly an investment in the litigation? (Or at least a bet that the litigation isn't material to their business.) The whole SCO vs IBM case was pretty unscrupulous, sleazy, and opportunistic, I agree. I'm not arguing that I have the solution to stop abuses like this. I'm saying that limiting financing is not it.
> Yes, but how do you stop that?
Not by limiting financing, but by recognizing and shutting down barratry and stunts.
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#9No. No. No. Not unless the court can level the playing field by ordering the recipient to disgorge invested funds if the opposing party can prove need. Otherwise well funded litigants will bury cash strapped kitigants in fees.
Re: Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
#10Yes of course you should. This is no different than a lawyer taking a case on contingency. It provides people without the means to hire a legal team a way to take on more well-financed opponents. While abuse of the legal system is certainly a problem, the way to solve it is not limit financing. That only increases economic inequality. It's like saying we can solve the SF housing crisis by banning mortgages.
Didn't Microsoft do this with SCO vs Linux though? In that case, it was big incumbent interested in squashing a scrappy start-up disrupting the industry. In a case like that, it seems like a tool to perpetuate economic inequality.
Microsoft only needed to go through SCO to hide their involvement in the case. If they hadn't cared about a possible DoJ investigation MS could have simply bought SCO and brought the suit themselves. Also, SCO's main lawsuit was against IBM, the complete opposite of a "scrappy start-up".