FOLLOWING UP ON THE STORY ABOUT THE GUY WHO FELL ASLEEP AT A YANKEES GAME, THEN SUED ESPN

Funny, I didn’t find any updates on the lawsuit against ESPN by that guy who fell asleep at a Yankees game back in July.  I posted about it shortly after it was in the news.  Looks like (surprise, surprise) it never went anywhere.  I was figuring maybe I’d find an item about it being dismissed.

Unfortunately, it also appears that the blogger I linked to because I liked his comments about that lawsuit, and because I liked his resume, has quit blogging (at least, at that address).  That’s too bad.

I want to take off on something that blogger said in his post about the lawsuit against ESPN, because it deals with an issue that I have to explain to people regularly:

You might be asking yourself, right now, whether I’m worried about whether [the lawyer who filed the lawsuit against ESPN] is going to sue me for defamation. The answer is no. Could he sue me? Sure, he could file a frivolous lawsuit against me, just like he did to ESPN and the other defendants in this lawsuit. Unfortunately, anyone can file a lawsuit against you, for anything, or nothing at all. That doesn’t mean they’ll win.

Yes, unfortunately, anyone who is willing to pay the court’s filing fee can file a lawsuit against you, whether the lawsuit has any merit or not.  If the lawsuit obviously has no merit, it should get dismissed.  If someone files obviously meritless lawsuits in the same court enough times, some courts will enter an order that says the clerk can’t accept any future filings by that individual unless the court approves, but that’s pretty rare.

So, when I’m asked by someone who has been threatened with a lawsuit, can they really sue me, my answer has to be: yes, anyone who can find the courthouse and pay the filing fee can file a lawsuit. Then I quickly move on to what can be done about it if they do.