Re: Discuss EliteFitness.com News: How Anthony Roberts & Steroid.com Raped George Spe
George Spellwin said:
In an ideal world, I agree with you 100%. Let the lawyers work it out and not discuss it openly.
The problem is the cost of resolving the situation (legal fees) can literally cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We kept quiet and negotiated in good faith while Anthony blogged about the settlement discussions, but when they refused to settle for anything less than $180,000 in advertising plus cash, we had to let our community know what we are up against.
All this over a book I did not write.
I hear you but IMHO not best practice.
There are always two sides to every story and in business terms sometimes it takes a court to decide the outcome. From what i can see this will not be a long drawn out case as it involves ALLEGED copyright infringement on one case and a breach of contract regarding advertising on another.
If by mediation this can not be resolved then no matter what a court will have to decide and you will have to present your case and evidence as the claimant / defendants will.
I can see no benefit (legally) as to why anyone (thats here and the AR blog) would want to discuss in public as the support of members will serve no purpose in the actual case and actually only antagonize the issue with the other side (which is has done reading the AR blog). Also as relevant in the case everything that has been written here can and suspect will be entered as evidence. As this is an open discussion forum i can only assume you or your legal team hope to obtain character witnesses statements from it who know but PERSONALLY IMHO you should keep to behind closed doors and enter mediation and or allow the lawyers to do their jobs.
Any antagonization will mean that no mediation will work as who can back down so far from what i can see it has only meant both parties are more determined to go to court which again as we all know the lawyers are the only ones to benefit.
All depends how much you want to risk and how confident you are in winning. Please remember NO ONE can predict litigation cases i have seen dead certs go completely the other way simply due to an administration error. What is a dead cert is you will not achieve any benefit by doing dirty washing in public.
Its a bad situation and a shame it can not be resolved behind closed doors but best of luck to all as i really hope it is concluded soon but i bet the lawyers are rubbing their hands together reading this and the retaliation on the other site as it means it will elongate the case should it come to court
Good luck though and hope you, Brian & AR can hold a conference all, arrange lunch and not leave until resolved.
Wrongun!