the story of david and goliath is just one example of the supposedly helpless underdog battling the overwhelmingly powerful bully and i have a friend who fits the little guy in a legal battle against a huge corporation... royce and disney is my own up-close-and-personal david and goliath story and so far, goliath has been winning... the typical tactics, change of venue, delays approved by judges who are either corrupt or convinced by legalese that they should not hear the case but rather pass it on to other courts in other states... royce has been through the court system in florida, new york, and california, a few years in each state, and in each instance there was apparently no actual hearing of evidence, just motions to stay and delays and change of venue motions... and then there are the lawyers... apparently several have fought the case for royce only to mysteriously stop taking royce's phone calls after countersuits by disney were threatened or filed...
some years ago, royce signed a paper under durress that supposedly absolved disney of wrong doing but royce found evidence of fraud that allowed him to file against the signing of the paper and reopen the case... more years, more changes of venues, and finally a judge known to be very corporate friendly somehow closed the case... i am not sure if it was dismissed, but four days later disney filed a countersuit that the same judge accepted and the past few weeks disney has been threatening to take royce's home and everything he owns if he does not sign a document they refuse to present to royce's current lawyer unless royce pays legal fees... logic asks how can someone agree or not agree to sign something they cannot see... sounds fishy, but then, the years of legal spinning royce has endured seems fishier still... and suddenly, his lawyer is scaring the crap out of him insisting he pay and sign or risk losing everything...
my poor friend is frantic to the poinr of sounding irrationally upset and angry and helpless which is probably exactly what disney wants because such franticness in court would destroy any credibility royce might have... i advised him to get another attorney and he said no one will take his case... i advised him to go to legal aid because, as a defendant, he has the right to an attorney... i also advised him to focus on his right to be silent because ranting will not help him in court or anywhere... i listened to him for almost two hours... i don't know if i help him calm enough, i can only hope...
disney corp is known for stealing ideas and squashing those who might suggest they didn't, all big corporations do it... it is just sad to be friends with one of the little guys...
sigh...
No comments:
Post a Comment