SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the won't-anyone-think-of-the-lawyers? dept.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is taking Shakespeare's phrase "let's kill all the lawyers" to a different level. On Monday, he sued many of the attorneys who represented a New Yorker named Paul Ceglia, the man who claimed Zuckerberg promised him half of Facebook back when Zuckerberg was an 18-year-old Harvard University student.
"The lawyers representing Ceglia knew or should have known that the lawsuit was a fraud—it was brought by a convicted felon with a history of fraudulent scams, and it was based on an implausible story and obviously forged documents. In fact, Defendants’ own co-counsel discovered the fraud, informed the other lawyers, and withdrew. Despite all this, Defendants vigorously pursued the case in state and federal courts and in the media," Facebook said in a New York Supreme Court suit [PDF].
Ceglia faces trial next year on accusations that his lawsuit—in which he claimed half ownership of Facebook—was a fraud. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a maximum 40-year prison term if convicted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:29AM
The way most legal bars work, being convicted of something like this is a direct prescription to losing your license to practice law. So they just might lose their license. And frankly, I hope they do. As much as I despise facebook, I despise lawyers more, and having more lawyers losing their license's when the pull stunts like this would deter the other bottom feeding fools from trying it themselves.