Guardaley | X-Art
Six months after Malibu Media re-infested California: some statistics
The numbers
The total number of California cases as of today is 246 (CAND: 147, CASD: 45, CAED: 54). CASD and CAED cases are still in their initial stage (it seems that the troll didn’t even get the subscribers’ information yet in those districts). Nothing was filed in CACD: the troll is presumably scared of Judge Wright, which is understandable. Therefore, I’ll only talk about CAND for now.
Out of 147 CAND cases, 84 are still open, while 63 are closed: 5 were dismissed by the judge for failure to timely serve the defendant; 29 were dismissed with prejudice (which most certainly indicates settlement), 29 — without (two of these dismissals were due to sloppiness: duplicates).
Thus, the settlement rate is disappointingly high: it is depressing to see how many people were easily scared into submission. I fail to understand why: the cost of a competent defense is comparable to the settlement amount, which is at least $10,000.
Only 9 cases are currently contested: 4 defendants are represented by Nick Ranallo, 3 by Curtis Edmondson (one together with by Mark Lambert), 2 — pro se. Honestly, I expected more from Northern California. I hope more people will stand up against the bully in the coming months.
So, 30 settlements translate to at least $300,000, which is times more than the investment ($58,400 in filing fees, plus some minor paralegal work of copying the same documents over and over). Since the local attorneys’ cut of ransom proceeds is reportedly about 30%, no wonder that a young attorney has been joyously selling her soul to Mammon: apparently, the price is just right to justify closing eyes to the blatant dishonorableness of these lawsuits. For instance, for this price Ms. Erlbaum is seemingly OK with one of her lowest “achievements” — assaulting elderly:
The defendant is an 80 year old citizen surviving on an $800.00 per month pension with a $275,000 house mortgage and $1,250 per month payment, supported by renting rooms to individuals. This subpoena has disturbed the tranquility of his retirement, has threatened his safety net, created panic and has led him to the edge of mental break down.
The troll wants more time to pressure defendants
A recent development worth mentioning is an attempt by the troll to “streamline” the shakedown procedure, essentially a request for a privileged treatment under the Rule 4(m). Malibu wanted the judge to allow 55 days to serve defendants after learning their identities. Delay is Lipscomb’s bread and butter: on average it translates to more pressure and hence to an increased settlement rate. So, a six-figure windfall was apparently not enough. Truly, greed is a powerful drug.
The justification for 55 days was beyond ridiculous:
- Malibu Media conducts an investigation, typically lasting THREE DAYS, to determine whether it will pursue its claims against the subscriber identified or a third party using that subscriber’s Internet connection.
- Once Malibu Media decides to pursue claims against a defendant, it takes THREE DAYS to prepare and file a proposed summons, amended complaint, return of service, and a motion to file those documents under seal.
- Malibu Media’s sealing motion is granted within ONE DAY.
- The summons issues between TWO AND SIX DAYS after the sealing motion is granted.
- Malibu Media receives the unredacted summons by mail FOUR TO TEN DAYS after it issues.
- Malibu Media spends ONE DAY reviewing the relevant documents before delivering them to its process server.
Judge Alsup, while stating that “Malibu Media exaggerates the timeline of its procedure” and also that “Malibu Media only needs eight to ten days from the date it receives a defendant’s identifying information before it can deliver the relevant documents and instructions to its process server,” for some reason slashed the proposed timeline only slightly: from 55 days to 35. In addition, the judge mandated to immediately notify the court every time Comcast completes the sale of its customer to the troll:
In order to better track deadlines, Malibu Media shall please file a notice informing the Court of the date on which it received the defendant’s identifying information no later than FIVE CALENDAR DAYS after receiving that information.
Update
4/7/2016
I updated the spreadsheet. Since this post was published, California got infested even more (98 new cases):
- 2/29/2016: 30 new cases in CAND
- 3/30/2016: 22 new cases in CAED (bringing the total to 76)
- 3/31/2016: 32 new cases in CAND (bringing the total to 178)
- 4/1/2016: 12 new cases in CAND (bringing the total to 59)
Fight © Trolls 
Sad to see so many payouts. Brenna even mentioned that she would expect more push back, yet, others have given up their good fight. A bit disheartening to see.
I just want to throw it out there, and it will probably be edited out , but I am one of the 9 contestants. My hearing is this week. Hoping for the best.
I don’t see why I should edit it out — unless you ask me to, I won’t. I don’t see how this comment is harmful to your case.
I wish you good luck!
Judge Alsup knows what the trolls are up to and seems to be wanting to keep any eye on how this litigation progresses on his docket. If he would have just rubber stamped the trolls request I would be a tad worried the fact that Alsup wants notification after Comcast sells out their subscribers would signal the trolls arent going to be able to play the extension, extension, extension game with him.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, I do find it rather funny how scared shitless Malibu is of filing in Judge Wright’s district. Obviously the trolls are concerned enough to purposely avoid filing anything in that district. The thing with no filings in Judge Wright’s district means that the trolls are going to be tempted to want to file there sooner or later, they are always loathe to pass yup a chance at easy settlement cash.
I will go out on a limb and say the trolls will file some test the waters cases in Judge Wright’s and see how they fare, if they think they are headed for trouble, I think they will cut and run before any real damage is done and then file no further cases.
That easy settlement cash is hard for the trolls to resist
I suspect they’ll still avoid that district. Judge Wright caught on to Prenda, and I seriously doubt he’ll tolerate similar shenanigans from another, similar outfit.
Not only Prenda: Wright wrote his famous line “essentially an extortion scheme” in a Malibu case back in 2012.
I have read a myriad of court documents, every single page and comment on this great site, as well as Die troll die. So much evidence, yet Malibu Media and others are still laughing all the way to the bank.
It is just astounding to me that the Federal Judges are willing to used by such an obviously fraudulent group of conspirators. So obvious that I don’t even see the need for a legal disclaimer for saying so.
I understand that Judges feel that Malibu deserves the protection of it’s copyrights, but does it not matter that nearly every single witness used by Malibu has committed perjury repeatedly and with disdain for the ability of the court to do the most elementary of research into the ever shifting lies?
This will no doubt go down in history as one of the biggest stains on the integrity of the Federal Courts, not to mention a major embarrassment for decades to come. The power of the courts to rid itself of this infestation is not in question. The will to do so is a different creature, though.
Then you have the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A couple of Bloggers, their guests and a handful of defense attorneys beat the FBI not once, but multiple times, in exposing fraud. How many people does the FBI employ? How strong are their investigative powers?
The pattern here seems to be people doing a lousy job, if you ask me.
Curious to see the latest statistics, especially for Texas.