Friday, January 19, 2007

"Stop with the million-dollar suit"

Karl Kemp Antiques' lawsuit against four homeless people (see here) makes it onto the front page of the New York Daily News today.

The case provides another litigation lesson: before you bring a lawsuit, think about any potential ridicule it will open you up to. In that regard, the decision to ask for $1 million in damages would seem to have been a tactical mistake here. See, for example, yesterday's Wall Street Journal Best of the Web (last item) ("[T]here's something ridiculous about ... suing street vagrants and demanding monetary damages. Most of the homeless, we'd venture to say, do not carry liability insurance").