Victor Mignogna v. Funimation Productions, LLC, et al. (2019) - Vic's lawsuit against Funimation, VAs, and others, for over a million dollars.

i mean it always sucks to be a plaintiff in court. You've already been wronged and now you rely on third party judgement to tell you if you actually were wronged. That sounds stressful as fuck

True, if you've got a case, but we see lolsuits by people who feel like they've been wronged by mean words on the internet without having much legal merit (if at all). I want anti-slap statutes for just that reason, even if it makes suing for actual defamation more difficult, to make sure that anyone trying to silence people without a good case gets fucked. And anyone who has a good case should have their shit together.

Unfortunately that doesn't preclude the system going off the rails if the judge doesn't proceed as he should but the problem of judges fucking up with little repercussion is more broad.
 
True, if you've got a case, but we see lolsuits by people who feel like they've been wronged by mean words on the internet without having much legal merit (if at all). I want anti-slap statutes for just that reason, even if it makes suing for actual defamation more difficult, to make sure that anyone trying to silence people without a good case gets fucked. And anyone who has a good case should have their shit together.

Unfortunately that doesn't preclude the system going off the rails if the judge doesn't proceed as he should but the problem of judges fucking up with little repercussion is more broad.

I'm not sure other than the actual results why people say the Texas anti-SLAPP statute is so terrible. It's only slightly different than the generally well regarded anti-SLAPP statute in California. I think we need a better judge, not a better statute.

(The main relevant difference seems to be the plaintiff and the defendant can both immediately appeal a ruling on the motion, which should be the case in Texas, too.)
 
If the transcripts actually have Chupp saying "I never made a final ruling, remove your appeal" I'll eat my fucking tie.

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https://archive.ph/jW6dg
 
Why is Chupp seeming to believe everything he is doing is going to be reversed on appeal? This is the weirdest part of it for me. If he actually thinks that why is he making those decisions in the first place?
The most straightforward explanation for him seeming like that is that he does believe that everything he's doing is likely going to be reversed on appeal. As for why make those decisions in the first place, you're making the bold assumption that he thought them all through at the time he made them. There's a difference between being unintelligent, and being lazy, impatient, and impulsive. Chupp appears to be the later. Too lazy to wade through all the shit that LeMosquitoed was generating and forcing Ty to generate in response. Too impatient to spend the hours and hours needed to hash it out in the hearing room. Too impulsive to put off ruling on anything until after the hearing when he had ample time to sit down and read through the important stuff he'd need to look over to write a supportable decision. The result is that he shot from the hip at the TCPA hearing, cut things short, made some decisions and some partial rulings that in hindsight he realized he probably shouldn't have. What he's done since that has been a combination of damage control, and trying avoid additional mess until things go to the appeals court so they can sort the case out.
 
The most straightforward explanation for him seeming like that is that he does believe that everything he's doing is likely going to be reversed on appeal. As for why make those decisions in the first place, you're making the bold assumption that he thought them all through at the time he made them. There's a difference between being unintelligent, and being lazy, impatient, and impulsive. Chupp appears to be the later. Too lazy to wade through all the shit that LeMosquitoed was generating and forcing Ty to generate in response. Too impatient to spend the hours and hours needed to hash it out in the hearing room. Too impulsive to put off ruling on anything until after the hearing when he had ample time to sit down and read through the important stuff he'd need to look over to write a supportable decision. The result is that he shot from the hip at the TCPA hearing, cut things short, made some decisions and some partial rulings that in hindsight he realized he probably shouldn't have. What he's done since that has been a combination of damage control, and trying avoid additional mess until things go to the appeals court so they can sort the case out.

That was actually something that really surprised me about the TCPA hearing now that I think about it. On the spot rulings like what Chupp did is usually the province of petty shit like Traffic Court. Thinking about every other pre-trial dismissal motion hearings I have been reading about, particularly in major cases like this one where the alleged damanges are huge and the filings rival "War and Peace" in size, you never see on the spot rulings. The judge just listens to the argument and then spends the next month or three writing a ruling and issuing it.
 
That is some remarkably useful information from a Spednaughter, and it's describing some notably good legal resolution from the court.

Who replaced my Weeb Wars with something resembling sanity?‽

Well, how about that. It didn't seem terribly likely that a judge would order, or even could order, an appeal to be withdrawn.

Thinking about every other pre-trial dismissal motion hearings I have been reading about, particularly in major cases like this one where the alleged damanges are huge and the filings rival "War and Peace" in size, you never see on the spot rulings.

And what happened in this case is exactly why a good judge doesn't make such rulings, even when the issues appear blindingly obvious. And they shouldn't have in this case had he paid any fucking attention at all to what was actually going on, but that's water under the bridge at this point.
 
Well, how about that. It didn't seem terribly likely that a judge would order, or even could order, an appeal to be withdrawn.



And what happened in this case is exactly why a good judge doesn't make such rulings, even when the issues appear blindingly obvious. And they shouldn't have in this case had he paid any fucking attention at all to what was actually going on, but that's water under the bridge at this point.
It seems to me that if Chupp did it, that would get him in some hot shit with the appeals court, sanctionable shit.

Now this shit actually worries me. Why the fuck would Martinez risk causing a waiver of rights by withdrawing???
 
It seems to me that if Chupp did it, that would get him in some hot shit with the appeals court, sanctionable shit.


Now this shit actually worries me. Why the fuck would Martinez risk causing a waiver of rights by withdrawing???

Martinez likely believes that as long as Chupp clarifies when his final order is, there's a compelling argument to say that the deadline is after that.
 
Now this shit actually worries me. Why the fuck would Martinez risk causing a waiver of rights by withdrawing???

I read that as "if you clear up when the timer started and say it starts after the fees are awarded, we'll withdraw and refile to comply". To which Chupp (reasonably) says "not sure I can do that, best not to try because that might screw things up even worse".

At least Martinez got him on the record about not issuing a final judgement yet. I think the point was to then argue the TCPA discovery stay remains in effect, which strengthens his arguments against Lemoine's subpoena BS.
 
I read that as "if you clear up when the timer started and say it starts after the fees are awarded, we'll withdraw and refile to comply". To which Chupp (reasonably) says "not sure I can do that, best not to try because that might screw things up even worse".

At least Martinez got him on the record about not issuing a final judgement yet. I think the point was to then argue the TCPA discovery stay remains in effect, which strengthens his arguments against Lemoine's subpoena BS.

It's a win no matter what Chupp said, basically. If the previous statement was his final judgement, the appeal is timely. If it wasn't, then discovery is on hold. Withdrawing the notice would be dangerous, but offering to do it means that Chupp won't be irritated with them not doing so now. Now it can sit there and wait for the appeals to decide if it was timely or not, Lemoine can't seek discovery, and there's no danger of missing the appeal window.
 
Now this shit actually worries me. Why the fuck would Martinez risk causing a waiver of rights by withdrawing???

He never did. The point was to put Chupp on the spot to get him to nail down a decision, so that they can proceed accordingly with the appeal.

Unlike the big brain NPCs on the Spednaught have been belching about how the appeal is premature and should be withdrawn, now they have the Judge himself saying it'd potentially be a stupid idea.

It's lovely to see them eat a little Dinky Sow Cow after they spent a month going lightsped about the early appeal filing
 
He never did. The point was to put Chupp on the spot to get him to nail down a decision, so that they can proceed accordingly with the appeal.

Unlike the big brain NPCs on the Spednaught have been belching about how the appeal is premature and should be withdrawn, now they have the Judge himself saying it'd potentially be a stupid idea.

It's lovely to see them eat a little Dinky Sow Cow after they spent a month going lightsped about the early appeal filing

You know, there's been instances where I've had a boss pull me aside and go "How long has this problem been going on?"

My answer: invariably some absurd length of time (as defined as "any amount more than 1 second / 1 instance if it's an actual problem")

Their followup, which I invariably never had an answer for: "Why didn't you talk to me about this when it started?"

... Why did it take a second law firm and a second dude in said law firm to flat out put Chupp on the spot and force him to answer something by just confronting him?
 
... Why did it take a second law firm and a second dude in said law firm to flat out put Chupp on the spot and force him to answer something by just confronting him?

Maybe this guy just personally knows that to get anything from Chupp you have to practically grab him and shake him, so just bluntly demanding he do something he should have already done was all that was needed.
 
Martinez likely believes that as long as Chupp clarifies when his final order is, there's a compelling argument to say that the deadline is after that.
I wonder if Lemoine is still going to argue that the deadline has passed to the appeals court.

Has Lemoine been in front of this particular appeals court before?
 
Maybe this guy just personally knows that to get anything from Chupp you have to practically grab him and shake him, so just bluntly demanding he do something he should have already done was all that was needed.

These guys have a bit of experience with Chupp and the Tarrant County law community as a whole. Ty was smart to bring them on. I'm not happy w/ Ty in general but I'm grateful he recognized that Martinez Hsu on board would help. So far I've got moderately hopeful expectations for them, and from the sounds of it, it seemed like Martinez took the energy of the room.

I'm curious about the transcripts because they should at least offer some insight on what their interactions were like.
 
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