The Blog of Albert Lash

Today I went swimming and it was awesome. I really love to swim! I've been to the pool with my daughter a lot lately, and since she's two years old, I of course stay with her the entire time we're there. We spend about half the time in the toddler pool which is only one foot deep and the medium pool which is three feet deep.

Today I was by myself so I swam in the lap pool and swam ten laps. Swimming is perfect exercise for me - not too intense, but a full body work out.

I'm planning on going again soon!

UPDATE: I've continued to swim a whole bunch - 40 laps yesterday and another 20 today. Feels great! I also bought my daughter a little floating swim jacket and we're going at least once a week.

I just read an awesome post over at We'll See | Matt Zimmerman entitled On Cloud.

My comment:

This is a terrific post. I enjoyed the part about banking - as in the US we initially were bound to Fort Knox for backing up our bills with gold stockpiles, but have been off that plan for some time now and no one seems to mind all that much (but some do).

Also in the US, people are apparently feeling more comfortable with an unknown future - they switch jobs more readily, and even religions.

Is our six sense coming to fruition?

Over the past five years, I've had the unfortunate experience of getting sued, twice. Its a highly unpleasant experience, but I did learn from it and it did build character.

I gained a lot of respect for the legal profession, but I also came to realize that there is very little that can be done to prevent someone from suing you. As one of my lawyers said, "All anyone needs to sue someone else is a piece of paper, an envelope, and a stamp."

Another lawyer once told me that getting sued can be a sign of success; the plaintiff might be suing you because they are afraid of the power you have, or wants something you have. In my cases, I believe that to have been the cause, but truly its of little consolation!

But what about the title of this post? What is a SLAPP lawsuit? All caps, it must stand for something, right? Yes:

Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation

The public participation referred to here is the speech, and our right to its freedom. There are circumstances where free speech is not protected, as in cases of libel or defamation. For example, if one restaurant falsely states that another restaurant serves tainted food, they can and in my humble opinion should be silenced and held liable for the potential monetary damages caused by their false claims.

On the flip side, if their claims are true, I do not feel that they should be silenced, or held liable for damages resulting from the truth being made public. However, the offending restaurant can still sue in an effort to defend themselves. What has evolved within our legal system is the use of merit-less libel and defamation lawsuits used to spend opponents into submission. Similar to frivolous lawsuits, they are usually expected to lose if they run their course.

Apparently these types of frivolous lawsuits are so commonplace that they deserve specific legislation to be handled, and are even afforded their own acronym!

While its nice to know that injustice can potentially be corrected through the due process, its disappointing to learn that such a system can be so grossly abused. Furthermore its disappointing to learn that for the most part, it is the lawyers, not the judges, play the role of policing the system.

Most states have anti-SLAPP legislation, and NPR is reporting that the federal government is considering nationwide anti-SLAPP legislation, too.

I'm not a lawmaker nor a legislator, but in my humble opinion there should be treble punitive damages for merit-less SLAPP lawsuits. The system needs some sort of systematic process for preventing this type of legal abuse.

What do you think?