Jack Thompson Sues Florida Bar 71
Gamasutra reports that Jack Thompson has sued the Florida Bar Association, for "hector[ing] plaintiff Thompson for 19 months with SLAPP Bar complaints filed by opposing counsel (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participants). Continually, during that time, Thompson and his counsel in these Bar matters have repeatedly asked The Florida Bar to sit down with him and his counsel to try to resolve, once and for all, this dispute, which goes back more than 18 years when other baseless SLAPP Bar complaints were filed, resulting in the payment of money damages to plaintiff Thompson."
I find it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it difficult to read anything involving Jack Thompson seriously at this point. The media coverage he has gained just makes him look like the lead act in a ridiculous circus. While it may have even been funny in a stomach-turning way at one point or another, it's essentially just pathetic to see news involving him.
I can only hope that he learns his lesson sooner or later, or at least it'll get to the point where nobody cares about Jack Thompson. At this stage in the game to say otherwise owuld be an exercise in futility.
Re:I find it... (Score:1)
This http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&
I personally know someone (Score:5, Interesting)
Go figure. Someone breaks the ethics rules of the Florida Bar. A number of people nationwide respond by filing complaints with the Florida Bar noting these breaches of ethics rules. And the guy's response? Is to sue the Florida Bar for allowing people to file these complaints in the first place.
Jack Thompson's suit is the exact sort of thing the term "SLAPP" was designed to describe in the first place. It's disgusting he is able to get away with things like this. And the worst part? In the end, he probably won't have any consequences. He'll get the publicity he craves from this spat with the Bar, but what with the pressure he's applying by gaming the system, the Bar will probably back off on actually doing anything about his ethics violations.
Don't underestimate the bar (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't underestimate the bar (Score:2)
Re:Don't underestimate the bar (Score:2)
But yea, if you don't have the law backing you and tieiing the other side down, you gonna get hurt.
Re:Don't underestimate the bar (Score:2)
Re:Don't underestimate the bar (Score:2)
But really, both seem somewhat frightening. If the law was on my side, I don'[t think i would worry too much about going against the bar. They would have to keep thier creditability to some degree or the public would be clamering to have the system replaced or for new oversight. I guess it would be confirmation of "all lawers are crooked" if they retaliated and you were in the right.
Re:Don't underestimate the bar (Score:2, Insightful)
This is exactly what he wants. Thompson has shown repeatedly that he cares little for the actual legal merit of anything he is involved in, and is more interested in self-important attention-whoring. Unfortunately for the legal system and the populace in general, he is a lawyer, and this allows him more and better opportunities to abuse the legal and media systems for personal gain.
And soon... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And soon... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:And soon... (Score:3, Funny)
Naw, Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't make gory video games.
Re:And soon... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And soon... (Score:1)
Re:And soon... (Score:2)
If you don't look... (Score:2, Insightful)
He's been doing this for 17 years. (Score:4, Informative)
17 years. And he hasn't faded away yet.
Really, some things don't go away when you stop paying attention to them.
Re:He's been doing this for 17 years. (Score:2)
Grand Theft Auto®: South Beach
In this title you take on the persona of Jack Thompson.
Command an army of mindless paralegals who are more than happy to carry out your bidding.
Strong arm small software devolpment companies.
Wrestle private citizens into finacial submission.
Tie up legal systems for weeks, months, extra points for years with bullshit appeals.
Win the game by ultimately running for Chief Justice.
Score big in the bonus round for gaining popularity points via sensa
Re:If you don't look... (Score:4, Insightful)
So, ignore him. He's still on CNN, Fox news, whoever will listen to him on a weekly basis. The family protection groups are still throwing his name and words around - even the ones that publically renounced him a while back have made friendly again. What you have now is the same guy running unchallenged. This is the situation he had when he ruined many businesses in the porn industry. Nobody stood up to him, and the industry itself just ignored him and hoped their studio wasn't next. So a lot of people lost their businesses - some of whom hadn't actually been making pornography, but he figured it was close enough.
Then he went after music. Ruined a few artists, got a few CD's taken off the market - to this day he loves to tell anybody who'll listen that he's the reason Ice-T's career ended so suddenly. By and large, no opposition. The artists ignored him, the labels didn't really care, and the listeners didn't even know what was going on in most cases.
A decade running unchecked. He finally picked on an industry with a lot of fans who spend more time on their computers than anywhere else, and fighting back is easy online, so a lot of people are fighting back now.
And what happened? He's lost cases, he's been thrown out of court, he's been made a monkey of repeatedly, and right now he's in danger of losing his ability to make legal war on the media for good.
Just ignore him. He'll be back.
Re:Anyone else... (Score:1)
So...Florida gets to do tag team, right? (Score:1)
Re:So...Florida gets to do tag team, right? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So...Florida gets to do tag team, right? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So...Florida gets to do tag team, right? (Score:2)
Expert (Score:4, Insightful)
dumb or smart? (Score:3, Interesting)
Then again, SCO shows us how what appears to be stupid on the surface can really be an extremely smart exploitation of the legal system for personal gains.
So, let's follow the money - what's Jack's potential profit here? More publicity?
Re:dumb or smart? (Score:2)
Re:dumb or smart? (Score:1)
I agree Jack... (Score:2)
A Reminder (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A Reminder (Score:2)
I loved the "PONG - San Andreas" crack ;).
I wonder if you could make a hack for GTASA that would allow you to use superball launcher as a weapon ?-) Obviously, those things would bounce off everything :)...
In my not so humble opinion... (Score:2)
And funny as all get out, considering Jack's past and recent conduct...
Diddums (Score:4, Insightful)
And encouraging families to sue game makers is not vindictive?! The man has been abusing the legal system filing frivolous complaints against game makers for years.
In an ideal world.... (Score:1)
Cum granum salis (Score:5, Insightful)
The first recipients should probably be Jack Thompson, and SCO.
Re:Cum granum salis (Score:2)
For starters, you have the PATRIOT Act.
Re:Cum granum salis (Score:3, Informative)
That would be cum grano salis. cum takes the ablative case, not the accusative.
Re:Cum granum salis (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite the same thing, but there's a concept of the 'vexatious litigant' [wikipedia.org] in some places. They're forbidden to sue anybody, because they've abused the courts repeatedly and egregiously. The British courts' killfile is here [hmcourts-service.gov.uk], and I notice from the wikipedia link that the notorious Christian extremist Fred Phelps is listed as a vexatious litigant in the US.
"I've got a First Amendment right to annoy people" (Score:4, Interesting)
Explains why he keeps evading bans on Gamepolitics, and spewing his usual retarded drivel there. For someone who is "wining", he sure spends a lot of time posting and obsessing over GamePolitics. But what else can you say about someone who, among various absurd things, feels blogs are for losers(but not LiveJournal accounts to post PR pieces, trash talk, etc), whines when someone calls/mails him, and has non-existent/default "no page here yet" web sites? Guess the place holder is better then his text only Florida Bar attack site(which is now "no page here" humm....).
You know, a bunch of people have been wondering if Jack suffers from some sort of mental disability/defect. Given how he acts like some Usenet kooks I "know"(taking things to real life, being very hypocritical in their actions, claming credit for the work of others, claiming any darned thing is a victory for them, making absurd claims, etc), I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case. HELL, this makes a lot of sense, his last issue with the Florida bar in the 90s was over their forcing him to undergo psychiatric testing!
While he did pass and was awarded a $20,000 settlement, I have to wonder with all the advances in psychology and diagnosis of mental disabilities, if they will find something this time. And that is what I think is a good reason for his current mental breakdown, with the constant losing streak, inappropriate behavior, legal antics, and now the Florida bar, things are not looking too good for Jack despite his poker face & "I am going to win" attitude. He faces to lose a lot of creditablity, his profession, and greatly damages his "muder-sim p0rn0 games made them kill, they should be banned" cause.
He is at the end of his wits, grasping at straws, running out of time and deep down realizes that he not going to get anywhere in terms of what he wants. Thus like kooks he takes the safe route of all talk, little to no real action.
Re:"I've got a First Amendment right to annoy peop (Score:1)
Regardless of the fact that he passed the evaluation, the man is batshit crazy.
Kierthos
Re:"I've got a First Amendment right to annoy peop (Score:5, Insightful)
Aww (Score:5, Funny)
My question: (Score:2)
fuckjackthompson.com (Score:3, Informative)
Re:fuckjackthompson.com (Score:2)
Re:fuckjackthompson.com (Score:2)
Related (Score:2)
Next week's headline... (Score:2, Funny)
Paranoid much? (Score:2)
Who? (Score:1)
Re:Who? (Score:3, Interesting)
In this case, it will most likely signal the official end of his lawyer career. He's already lost credability with NIMF, and in other places. Going after the bar will make him lose credibility, period.
While a similar lawsuit succeeded in the past, it was settled out of court since the bar wanted to protect the people making the complaints. However, I doubt there's going to be any fo
Re:Who? (Score:1)
Kierthos
Automatically Disbarred? (Score:2)
He's smarter than you think. (Score:1)
This is 2 things.
1: He sues the bar, and can subpeona the names of the complaint filers.
2: He can't be debarred until the case is over, and he can strech it out a while.
Re:He's smarter than you think. (Score:1)
Re:He's smarter than you think. (Score:1)
If he was debarred, he'd file for an injunction ot stop it, as he's in a case with them and it would 'seem' like it was a move to make it harder for him to operate.
No wonder Jack's upset... (Score:2, Funny)
Jack is fighting a Take Two lawyer named Blank Rome? What, they couldn't find one named Duke Nukem to really make him mad?
Re:No wonder Jack's upset... (Score:2)
That would take Forever.
Jack Thompson Noise (Score:1)