Quivering in my boots!

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Just got a super-professional letter telling me that I could remove my posts about our very favorite Davis Squarean and avoid the wrath of his mega-lawsuit. Otherwise, he's going to tell people who I am, so scary.

Dude, you presumably found out who I was from the entry in my LiveJournal where I give my full legal name; why do you think that outing me is some big threat?

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Some people need to learn that writing "Confidential Settlement Offer" on a piece of paper has exactly the same legal weight as writing "Cootie Protection" on your sneakers did in second grade.

Kisses,

Julia Marietta Sullivan

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)...

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

Amazing

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

+1 the "pest control" tag :-)

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

Even better: the law he cites at the top of his letter, to try and scare us with his scary legal lingo? Is a Washington state law. A Washington. State. Law.

I feel like I should send him a shiny nickel just for entertaining me so.

XOXO,

Cassandra Michelle Adain Lease
I have TWO middle names, sir.
YOU MISSED ONE.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm really not sure he's going to quit if people take down their comments anyway. He'll claim damages for the time they were there or something. It's like spammers, responding to his letter only lets him know he's got useful contact info for you and you're willing to capitulate to him. At this point, the best thing folks can do is sit tight and wait until there's legal representation to deal with the situation. (If there's anything any of us can do to help with that, please don't hesitate to let us know!)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm certainly not willing to capitulate to him, and since my full legal name is on my LiveJournal account, I clearly don't give a fuck who has useful contact information for me.

I just find him hilarious.

And I have a lawyer, to whom I'm forwarding this nonsense in any case, and I'm sure she'll be happy to pass it on to Ron's lawyer.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet gotten a letter addressed to "The Wolverine of Drinking" and I'm feeling a little left out.

[londo.livejournal.com]

I'll send you one if you give me your address! I bet I could compose an awesome letter to The Wolverine of Drinking.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Dear Mr. of Drinking,

Please be aware that our representatives are compiling your improper use of the Wolverine name and will be contacting you shortly.

Sincerely,

Elliot Maysquad, Esq
Representing the Wolverine Foundation

[cnoocy]

I received one, despite having deleted my comments at the time (I didn't have personal knowledge and plenty of others did) and stating, as I did so, "do not contact me again."

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of excited about the part where the discovery process will uncover my future posts. I wonder if they'll tell me what I'm going to say!

[spatch]

I liked how I was warned that my identity would be eventually discovered as the suit progresses. How'd the letter get to me in the first place?

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

lolsnerk

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

If it's not a certified letter (or noone signed for it, etc) you can always say you never received it.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[ron_newman]

But that might be hard if you've announced it here or on a public Facebook post.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

no....it's a Massachuseets Rule of Evidence. It doesn't really mean what he seems to think it means, but it's a Mass Rule.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

You're probably going to talk about something you knitted. ;-)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Why would I want to do that?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

It's a Federal rule of evidence that many states (including Wisconsin and indeed Massachusetts) have adopted, complete with the same numbering, isn't it? I think Wisconsin's turns up first on the Google search, which may account for the confusion.

Agree from my non-lawyer's perspective that there is no way it can mean what he thinks it means. All the references to it that I find from my lazy, not-a-lawyer search case law seem to indicate that it's generally invoked in liability cases by defendants---for instance, where an employer offered to pay an injured worker's hospital bills, ER 408 is used to argue that that worker's lawyer can't introduce it as an admission of liability by the employer. It's not a magic spell meaning nobody can talk about it.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what this gentleman's purpose in sending his letter was, but I stand by my words and by Ron and the other moderators of this community. My hope in opening a discussion of this was so that others who might have received similar letters would know they weren't alone.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

My (also non-lawyer) understanding is that the relevant bit for 408 is that we can't introduce it into evidence as proof that the plaintiff puts a lesser worth (whatever was contained in the offer) on his damages. That is, I can't say "Jonmon offered to drop me from the lawsuit if I deleted my posts, and I wouldn't have to pay him anything" and claim that as evidence that he wasn't actually damaged from my words because he was willing to settle for $0 from me.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Pretty, much, yeah.

Oh my GOD he is stupid.

[spatch]

He sent it to say two things:

1. I know who you are.
2. I know where you live.

It's right in line with the stalker's mentality he displayed during the Great Dramabomb of 2010.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

As I say, quivering in my boots. Which is not to suggest that I don't sympathize with anyone who might have found receiving a letter from this gentleman disturbing or upsetting, because I know everyone's coming from a different place with their own experiences.

I already know who I am and where I live, and I am open about that on the Internet, so Mr. M's exercise was spectacularly pointless in my case.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

My name is Mary Sue Freed, and I approve of this post.

[jedi.livejournal.com]

I got one of these as well.
It is my OPINION that he is a creepy twat waffle.

I hope he brings this to court so they have to say "twat waffle" on record.

Again... it is my OPINION, protected free speech, that he is a creepy twat waffle.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Even when I searched for E.R. 408 in Massachusetts, I got a bunch of Washington state links first. Clearly my Google-fu has failed, and IANAL.

Still. The whole thing is just...precious.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I see your twat waffle and raise you a douche canoe.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

It's super confusing (to me too, obviously, because I typed "Wisconsin" even though I meant to respond to your comment about Washington, which were the first couple dozen or so links I found as well). Clearly we caught some kind of aerosolized confusion particles from the letter.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I was wondering the same thing.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Owl?

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

Made of cat fur!

Probably.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

It's worth noting a couple of points:

His legal counsel is almost certainly not involved with the sending of these settlement terms - they are unlikely to be valid in that light - moreover, his attorney is likely to be (rightfully) pissed off at his stupidity.

This also implies a couple of things, just from an Intelligence perspective: Montsarrat is doing his own legwork - these were sent out in his handwriting, and the letters themselves are highly confused about certain principles of law. Sent by a lawfirm? Nope.
While these letters may not (they might be; this depends solely upon the details surrounding rule 804) be admissible as evidence in the actual case at hand, they are almost certainly admissible as evidence of harassment in the inevitable countersuits to come.

These opinions are solely those of Mayor R. James Scheffler (I - Drinkin' Island), the author of this comment.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

i see douche canoe and raise you a shitcamel.

[spatch]

Aw, hell. All I had was assfedora.

I fold.

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

Which makes this the funniest thing, to me. Because not only am I half a world away from Massachusetts to begin with, he sent the letter to the house I lived in 2 years ago.

(at least in my case, Stalking: Jonmon's doin' it rong.)

[spatch]

He's been a very busy boy, that's for sure. Looks like he's used whatever he could find, including outdated whois info and such. I'm also reasonably sure he also looked up voter records or something, because he used my full name (OH NOS!) and my current address has never been connected to this LJ account.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Dear Mr. Scheffler,

Please be aware that our representatives are compiling your improper use of the Drinkin' Island name and will be contacting you shortly.

Sincerely,

Elliot Maysquad, Esq
Representing the of Drinking Family Foundation

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

and also the "airplane noise" tag.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Montsarrat is doing his own legwork

Which implies that this is a low-budget operation, and likely to be ineffective against anyone who is willing to put up a stiff defense.

[freckles42.livejournal.com]

And honestly, it's ethically dangerous for his attorneys.

In other news, the handwritten quality of the envelopes indicates a basic inability to master the mail merge function.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, this fucking comedy of errors just keeps on comedy-ing.

"i'm not a creep like everyone says i am, but i will hunt down your info, come to your house, your mother's house, and call you at work because a few years ago you agreed i was a creep."

okay bro.

even regardless of everything else, anyone who says what amounts to "she didn't go to the police, therefore i did nothing wrong and am not a generally slimy person," is, in fact, a slimy motherfucker.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

he did, as another person i know received a letter with part of their name misspelled, i.e., exactly how it appears on the voter rolls.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Attorney Maysquad,

As the duly-elected Mayor of Drinkin' Island, it is important to correspond with my constituency and elsewhere under full color of office what that correspondence so warrants. While every resident and indeed every temporary visitor to our island recognizes and respects the storied contributions of the Drinking Family, I has long been a matter of settled law that neither the family, not the estate of the late Ian "Lemmy" Frasier Drinking maintains valid trademark claims ove rthe name of the legally-incorporated community of Drinkin' Island.

Thank you,

Mayor R. James Scheffler (I - Drinkin' Island)

[lheena.livejournal.com]

Watch out. 2016, you're going to get sued again, although I look forward to him trying to explain 'twat waffle' in a court of law.

Late comment is late, sorry!

[lheena.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it implies low budget, or just... not understanding of legal norms. You know the stories of the 'crazy guy who wanders around doing weird things' and then you secretly finds out that he's got loads of money?

I have no idea about his financial circumstances, but it's entirely possible he's doing his own legwork purely because he personally wants to handle it. :(