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> The Delaware legal system is fundamentally broken for defendants. The entire US legal system is fundamentally and utterly broken. If you want to make a few
by 827a 1y ago
> The Delaware legal system is fundamentally broken for defendants.
The entire US legal system is fundamentally and utterly broken.
If you want to make a few thousand dollars, I hate to share this secret thing you can do, but the reality of my experience is that the only thing stopping more people from doing this is, you know, some semblance of morality. Go find any local, smaller nonprofit organization. Volunteer with them for a day or two. Pay $80-$150 to sue them in small claims court for $5000 because <<you can literally make up any reason, you don't need evidence, it doesn't need to have happened, "mental hardship", I'm actually wondering if you hadn't have needed any interaction at all with the organization>>. Have an LLM generate 2-3 emails a week outlining anything at all related to grievance; each one you send to the organization is likely to result in billable legal hours. When the court date gets near, you can file for a motion to extend. Keep sending emails. After 4-6 months of doing this, send them a settlement offer for half of what you originally sued for.
I've seen this essentially destroy one nonprofit; the board was inexperienced in dealing with it, the person doing it had clearly done it before, by the end they'd spent ~80% of their bank account on legal fees, paid out a few thousand in a settlement to the plaintiff, and half the board resigned in burnout.
If you've never came into contact with this kind of weapon before, you might have it in your head "we'll just argue the case, we're clearly in the right" ha. ha. No. You'll never get the opportunity, and the people who do this know it.
If you're now thinking "well, if you're such a small organization why are you paying lawyers at all? We have AI. We'll just file responses on our own" I wish it were the case. But sadly: at least in my state, you can sue organizations in small claims court without representation, but filings made to the court in defense of the organization must be made by a licensed attorney. Asymmetry is built into the system.
The only thing that can protect nonprofit organizations from this, beyond having a massive bank account, is getting a lawyer to donate work pro-bono and/or sit on your board of directors. This is a common thing for nonprofits, for this exact reason, and assuming you're legit and well-known its not too hard to find legal experts who will do this for you.
If you're not a nonprofit, I have to imagine you don't have this angle open to you, and you're just SOL.
- ProllyInfamous 1y ago>in my state, you can sue organizations in small claims court without representation, but filings made to the court in defense of the organization must be made by a licensed attorney Same in my US state, which I'm actually using to my advantage — my state's small claims jurisdiction extends up to $25,000 so the defendant (a company) would probably get an attorney anyways =P Once more people realize that LLMs can already throw together a reasonable case, I think small claims courts are going to be [even more] overwhelmed. On my last visit, I was explaining to many of the attorneys how accessible this all is becoming (none of them read SCOTUS Chief's end of 2023 report "On AI")...
- 1718627440 1y agoSo "In dubio pro reo" isn't valid in the US?