The problem with Monica, Toye and Marchi is Vic has, at this moment, $155,000 and rising, to burn through before it hits his savings. The others? Not so much. Every minute of Lawyer time is coming out of their pocket. And with 4 different defendants their interests will start to diverge. So a delay caused by one can start eating into the others legal time and billing just as much as the plaintiff’s. Here’s a fun example, just from today. Monica and Ron’s Attorney has asked for a protective order. Now in the unlikely event that might be granted, it will immediately be challenged by not the Plaintiff, but the “Media” seeking to preserve and report on the public’s interest in the case. The Media being Nick Rekieta. Costs to Nick to file such a challenge? Reasonably minimal. Costs to Defendants to defend against it? Throw another $5 grand on the trash fire. Costs to Plaintiff to sit back and laugh watching this? $0.
What are the chances that Rial, Marchi or Toye could manage to crowdfund any legal funds? What legal and ethical problems arise from Toye and Rial being separate defendants, with separate causes of actions having a common lawyer? Especially given that nobody is going to donate individually to Soyboy? Would there be a problem with them creating a single joint legal defense fund, with no clear path to severability? I don’t believe that under the circumstances the Law Firm could create a single joint IOLTA for them? They have to be treated as individual clients. (Yeah, that whole shared lawyer thing is going to get messy fast, isn’t it?)