Author Archives: Paul Levy

Time for Prestigious Pets to Pay the Piper

by Paul Alan Levy Late yesterday, we filed an application for an award of attorney fees and sanctions, seeking a six-figure award against Prestigious Pets, the Dallas pet-sitting firm whose suit for breach of a nondisparagement clause was dismissed last month under the Texas anti-SLAPP statute (the Texas Citizens Participation Act). I hate to have […]

Kentucky Supreme Court Embraces Dendrite Standard

by Paul Alan Levy In Doe v. Coleman, a decision issued yesterday, the Kentucky Supreme Court overruled a decision of the state court of appeals which, considering the validity of a subpoena to identify defendants who had been sued for defamation based on comments about a local official, had held that the plaintiff officials’ conclusory […]

Bill Banning Non-disparagement Clauses in Form Consumer Contracts Moves Toward Final Adoption

by Paul Alan Levy News comes from Chris Morran over at Consumerist that the House version of a bill banning non-disparagement clauses in form consumer contracts, which passed the Senate late last year, was passed on a voice vote in the House of Representatives today.  Looks as if this bill will become law before the […]

Bradley Smith v Deborah Garcia: Reputation Management by “Consent Order” Gets Even Weirder

by Paul Alan Levy This blog has carried a number of articles recently about the bizarre story of “Patel v. Chan”  a case in which a pro se lawsuit, seeking relief for defamation based on comments posted on several interactive consumer review sites, was filed in Baltimore without the signatures of any real people. The […]

Georgia Consumer Asks Baltimore Judge to Vacate Dentist Mitul Patel’s Bogus “Consent Order”

by Paul Alan Levy     I blogged here last month about a peculiar pro se lawsuit and consent order which, in retrospect, has all the hallmarks of a sloppy effort by some blackhat SEO outfit trying to help a dentai client, Mitul Patel, rid the Internet of pesky consumer criticisms.  As the Streisand Effect engulfed his […]

Texas Court Strikes Down Prestigious Pets’ Nondisparagement Clause Lawsuit

by Paul Alan Levy A state District Court in Dallas (Judge Jim Jordan of the 160th District) has struck down a lawsuit over a non-disparagement clause in a form consumer agreement, holding that it could not be enforced against a consumer who expressed dissatisfaction about the service provided by a local business.  Although we have […]

Georgia Dentist Mitul Patel Acknowledges That “Consent Order” Was a Fraud, but Claims He is the Real Victim

A few days ago I wrote here about a lawsuit and consent order that were filed in Baltimore, Maryland, determining that a series of criticisms posted against Georgia dentist Mitul Patel by Matthew Chan, one of his patients in Georgia, were false and defamatory, and commanding their removal from the web and from search engine […]

Georgia Dentist Mitul Patel Takes Phony Litigation Scheme to New Extremes Trying to Suppress Criticism

by Paul Alan Levy At a time when the California Supreme Court is deciding whether to grant discretionary review of the decision of the California Court of Appeal in Hassell v. Bird, which held that Yelp could be required to comply with a default judgment holding that a posted review of a California lawyer was […]

Australian Financier’s Abuse of Trademark Law to Suppress a Critical Blog: A Perpetual Problem in the N.D. Cal.

by Paul Alan Levy There is somebody on the other side of the Pacific Ocean who has a strongly negative perspective on Nicholas Assef, the head honcho at an Australian financial services firm called Lincoln Crowne – or at least, somebody held such views nine years ago.   We know at least that much because, in […]