Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Patti Santangelo Opposes RIAA Motion to Discontinue "Without Prejudice"

Patti Santangelo is opposing the RIAA's motion to withdraw her case "without prejudice", in Elektra v. Santangelo.

Her attorney was delayed in filing his opposition papers. The RIAA would not consent to his filing the papers late. He then requested permission from the Court to file his opposition papers late. Judge Colleen McMahon granted permission, saying "I will Accept the late filing. Enough of these silly letters."

Memo Endorsed, Filed February 21, 2007, Accepting Late-Filed Answering Papers*

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

I say Good For Patti! She could have just let it all ride....but like a good mom, who's children are still being attacked, I might add, she's going to fight back and not let them off the hook that easy.

Why the heck should you have to go through all their 'crap', only to have it hanging over your head for what? Forever? I say go girl!

Anonymous said...

What does the hand-written comment at the top mean? Is that a comment from the judge? This letter seems far from silly.

raybeckerman said...

It's a "Memo Endorsed" Order from the judge granting Mr. Glass permission to file his answering papers late.

My guess is that what the judge is really saying is that the RIAA was silly to refuse a courtesy to opposing counsel, and that she doesn't want to be bothered with having to rule on such an application in the first place.

Normally, lawyers grant courtesies to opposing counsel.

This was an especially obvious instance for the granting of such a courtesy:

(a) the stakes are huge... maybe $100k in legal fees,
(b) it was just a slight delay, and
(c) it would have been ludicrous for the Court to penalize Ms. Santangelo to the tune of $100k just because her lawyer goofed up by a couple of days, due to some emergency obligations he had in another case.