27 Dresses - I Mean Duggar Threads (Now, with Duggar women lawsuit discussion!)

[VelociRapture]

1 minute ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

Is it silly that for this non-Arkansas person, every time I see the term NWA, I think of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Easy-E?  

No. Absolutely not. 

[choralcrusader8613]

Now I've got an image of JB and Josh doing "Fuck tha Police". Rufus, bleach my brain.

[Glasgowghirl]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks about Dr Dre when I read NWA

[Nikedagain?]

9 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

JB strikes me as someone who has a lot more skeletons in his closet than just this. I wonder if provoking the city ends up leaking some of them?

A literal dream come true.

[Kittikatz]

I'm not sure what the mechanisms are in Arkansas, but most FOI laws have notification requirements and some way for affected parties who were notified under the Act of an intention to disclose information related to them/their business to appeal the proposed disclosure.

Often appeal is through an independent quasi-judicial body, not the Courts. It's highly probable that the Duggars appealed the release and lost. There may or may not be a public record of that ruling, and if it is somewhere in the public record (which I would expect) it's possible that the ruling was made without the Duggar's name being listed. It may just be filed under a Jane Doe alias or something like a file or docket number, or it may have been ordered sealed. 

Court appeals of FOI releases are often a second step. Civil lawsuits are usually the last stage. 

I'm also going to state that I don't believe anything out of Jill's mouth with regard to timelines. I bet they knew something when that interview show was filmed. There was entirely too much tension in the air.

[Jess]

I originally thought this had 0 chance of success but the more thought and research I have given it the more I think they might (emphasis might) have a potential case. Just talking about in touch here and not saying it's a great case just more thought has made me think it's a better case then my first thoughts on it.

The first three causes of action are based on invasion of privacy. It comes down to two things for me. First, because they are public figures they have a lower right to privacy and courts have held it would need to be an extremely outrageous publication for a public figure to sucessed. However, this might actually meet that standard it would be something for courts to consider. Second, in touchs defense is this is a newsworthy story. It is  definantly newsworthy that Josh assaulted children, but I am not convinced it's newsworthy that it was his sisters who were victims. It's important, but hard, to separate the two issues: the newsworthiness of Josh's actions verse that the sisters were his victims. Also, time lessens the newsworthiness of an article  so older stories are less newsworthy in court cases and this was an old story. 

Fourth cause of action for intentional infliction of  emotional distress would require they had proof of treatment. I am skeptical that the Duggars believe in psychiatric treatment enough to proof this even if the girls did need this. It also seems basically impossible for a public figure to succeed with this claim. 

Overall I am not saying they have the best case I have ever seen just that the more I think about it the more their chances seem better then zero. 

The other causes of action only apply to the city and county.

 

[Exposedknees]

Some thoughts:

I can't help but wonder if Anna's withdrawing from appearing in the future on Counting On  last week had something to do with this law suit being filed this week.  

What a dark cloud this casts over Joy's wedding.

This lawsuit seems pretty off brand for Jeremy and Jinger.  Now she is implicated as a victim.  It was always a "gray area" before. 

 

[Hmmm_idolatry]

48 minutes ago, Exposedknees said:

I can't help but wonder if Anna's withdrawing from appearing in the future on Counting On  last week had something to do with this law suit being filed this week. 

Anna won't be on the next season of CO?  I thought I read that she and her trash heap of a husband were both going to be featured. 

[snickers34]

42 minutes ago, Glasgowghirl said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks about Dr Dre when I read NWA

It's where my brain goes immediately! And then I have to correct myself.

[Exposedknees]

47 minutes ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

Anna won't be on the next season of CO?  I thought I read that she and her trash heap of a husband were both going to be featured. 

I read on FJ this week that Anna was withdrawing from the show to focus on her family....now I'm scanning to find it. Help FJers! I can't remember the thread

 

[Bad Wolf]

Why now? Joy turned 18 in October of 2015. Plenty of time for them to file. I don't understand filing it shortly before Joy's wedding. It seems selfish to me.

[bashfulpixie]

1 hour ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

Is it silly that for this non-Arkansas person, every time I see the term NWA, I think of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Easy-E?  

Nope!  I do the same thing

[Curious]

9 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Can I just ask a random question here: how come we get two different places mentioned when it comes to where the Duggars live? Sometimes it's Springdale and sometimes it's Tontitown. I googled and they're right next to each other.

 

Where I live, at a certain street one side is town x and across the street is town y.  The town names are basically interchangeable, as are the zip codes.   I'm guessing it's similar where the Duggars live.

@VelociRapture from memory, The lawsuit Joy filed was to have the records expunged so no one else could get them via FOIA.  As far as I remember, the judge granted her request and the records were expunged.

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

Is it silly that for this non-Arkansas person, every time I see the term NWA, I think of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Easy-E?  

I know that was the first thing I thought of when the Duggars first came on my radar.  I still have to remind myself almost every time I see it.  I wonder what Bin thinks of NWA. I mean if he is buddy buddy with Flame does he know other rappers?  And speaking of Flame, what happened to him? Did he realize what a huge cluster fuck he got himself into with the Duggar brand and run like hell?

[closetcagebaby]

1 hour ago, Bad Wolf said:

Why now? Joy turned 18 in October of 2015. Plenty of time for them to file. I don't understand filing it shortly before Joy's wedding. It seems selfish to me.

There's speculation (that is probably true, in my opinion) that now that Joy is engaged and nearly married, her perceived "purity" among their fellows isn't so much of an issue. It's likely (and extremely wrong) that Josh's disgusting actions would've had more of an effect on the girls' reputations in their community than they would on his own. Now that all of his victims are bought and paid for, it's less of an issue to keep knowledge that they are "damaged goods" from being common knowledge. 

[DarkAnts]

I feel sympathy for Jill and Jessa not empathy. They lost that when they tried to white wash over everything on national television. I just cant feel empathy for them. I am too angry at them for the way they acted on the special and interview. Yes, I can be a bitch but my anger is valid as a survivor myself.

 

I feel empathy for Joy and Jinger. They have done nothing to suggest that their brothers treatment of them was ok. I am a little confused as to why they have come forward now saying they were the other two victims. The world had basically moved on to other things and was no longer interested in who the other two victims were. They opened an old wound by coming forward now.

Difference between empathy and sympathy

 

[Shadoewolf]

If the law is interpreted correctly, their statute of limitations to file is tomorrow/Monday. There's the motive to the "why now?".

[sunshine]

4 minutes ago, Shadoewolf said:

If the law is interpreted correctly, their statute of limitations to file is tomorrow/Monday. There's the motive to the "why now?".

I think the scandal cost them some serious money and promotions. They used to do workshops or something like that. After the scandal hit, they are mostly at home. That has to be a strange for them. They only travel for home school conferences, weddings and family visits, rather than making promotional stops. When is that last time they went to their March for Life event?

[divadivine]

9 hours ago, Mrs.Right said:

What makes me sick about them suing and potentially getting the money (even if there is a stipulation as to who gets the money), we all know the girls will hand over money to Jim Bob. And who will JB hand the money over to because he can't find work, yes that's right, the perp in all this. 

My thoughts exactly! Smuggar has a wife &  4 (soon 5 mouths) to feed. We know they will continue to pop out blessings. Since Smuggar will never be able to find a real job because he doesn't want to work and people will not hire him (for obvious reasons) he needs money to take care of him & his brood. Those girls will never see that money. It would go to Smuggar & his Chick-Fil-A habit. 

[CrazyMumma]

I can kind of understand why the girls are doing something... every news article I read about the girls has 'and their brother molested them!' in it... and I feel that as much as Joshua was/is bad... no one deserves to have their molestation being aired constantly on the news... I'm afraid that would deeply distress me.

[marmalade]

2 hours ago, Curious said:

Where I live, at a certain street one side is town x and across the street is town y.  The town names are basically interchangeable, as are the zip codes.   I'm guessing it's similar where the Duggars live.

@VelociRapture from memory, The lawsuit Joy filed was to have the records expunged so no one else could get them via FOIA.  As far as I remember, the judge granted her request and the records were expunged.

The Duggars lived in Springdale (Johnson Rd. house) when the molestations occurred. The  TTH is located in Tontitown. 

[subsaharanafrica]

I will say this: despite what most people seem to believe about the number of completely meritless lawsuits filed in the US it's just really not the case. (I'm not talking about pro se suits filed by whackadoodles here). 

Lawyers tend not to go around Willy-Nilly filing suits they know will be dismissed for having as someone upthread called, "no legal leg to stand on" for two main reasons:

1) It's an ethics violation and, at least where I am licensed to practice, you can be disbarred for doing so.

2) Money. Most lawyers would work a suit like this on a contingent basis and for payment would take somewhere around 30% of anything recovered. If you don't win and you don't settle you don't get paid. And since the lawyer foots the bill for the filings, depositions, legwork, and everything else the lawyers are the ones out the money if the case gets thrown out of court. 

I'm not saying that I think they have a strong case. I really don't know anything about Arkansas law and am wholly unqualified to make that kind of assessment. But given who is representing them and how they operate as a firm it's safe to assume that there is a case to be made. 

[Shadoewolf]

Actual attorneys feel free to correct me here but after reading through the lawsuit, a few things popped out.

It states an anonymous call prompted the investigation, but didn't JB&M openly state they contacted police when it kept happening? Also, the language of the suit is distinct, sexual assault and sexual abuse. But the Megyn Kelly interview (which I really think is going to help them LOSE) JB&M and Jill and Jessa seem to contradict and minimize the acts, so wouldn't both of those be a huge flag toward false statements made in the complaint?

Second, it constantly refers to the fact that no charges were brought against Josh but fails to note that they couldn't  prosecute Josh because JB&M failed to report the abuse until the statute of limitations had passed. Could the defense attorneys use that?

My last thought was a jury trial??! Are they nuts?? (Ok stupid question but still) A good attorney for the defense is going to annihilate the Duggar girls, especially Jill. They can't hide behind JB&M or their husbands. What else could come out....we talk about how incredible it would be for the Duggar beliefs to be blown wide open but holy crap the possible damage to the girl's emotional state. Not that they didn't bring this on themselves by filing the lawsuit but whoa the implications are huge.

[MadeItOut]

6 hours ago, Exposedknees said:

I read on FJ this week that Anna was withdrawing from the show to focus on her family....now I'm scanning to find it. Help FJers! I can't remember the thread

 

I had the same problem a few days back when someone asked me to link what I'd read (at the point when I'd seen it, I'd also seen an article where it was JB who had suggested she wants to focus on her children - I remember as it gave me chills). When I went back for it, several articles just aren't there anymore - there was only in touch and the CP's 'articles' left - and we all know how reliable they are.

[VelociRapture]

@ShadoewolfI'm not a lawyer, but I watch a ton of Law & Order: SVU... so I'm kinda an expert. 

(Thats a joke.)

I would think that a settlement is far more likely than a trial. Unless the town and magazine both feel they did absolutely everything right and they're willing to risk a trial to prove it.

From my recollection, JB and Michelle contacted a friend who worked as a Police Officer. He spoke with them and Josh, but never filed a report. This same cop was arrested and wound up in jail for a completely different matter, possibly sexual assault of a minor (DO NOT quote me on this part. I can't remember for sure.) It was later on that an investigation was started. I believe it was sparked by the letter sent to Oprah and/or a phone call.

I honestly don't know what lawyers would focus on during the trial. I would assume they'd stick closely to proving emotional distress and proving that there was something illegal/legal in how everything was handled.