When Frivolous Lawsuits Go Wrong

Chris | InformationLiberation
Aug. 04, 2015

The family of Aurora, Colorado theater shooting victim Jessica Ghawi, 24, is not entitled to cash in on their daughter's murder by suing four ammunition dealers from which James Holmes purchased ammo, a federal judge has ruled.

To the contrary, the judge ordered them to pay attorney's fees to the victims of their frivolous lawsuit to the tune of over $200,000.

NBC Bay Area reports:

Federal Judge Richard P. Matsch [...] dismissed the case [they filed] calling it an act made for “political purposes” meant to “propagandize the public and stigmatize the defendants.”

“Those who ignite a fire should be responsible for the cost of suppressing it before it becomes a conflagration,” he wrote in the order this June.

Ultimately, the tally of costs accrued in the Phillips’ $200,000 bill includes everything from attorney’s fees to travel, and even small charges like postage.

The family recently dropped an appeal of the judge’s order. Any additional legal fees would force them into bankruptcy, they said.

[...]“They have taken our daughter, and now they want to take our worldly goods,” Lonnie Phillips told MSNBC’s Tamron Hall in a televised interview earlier this week. “I think that’s a little much.”

That their daughter was murdered is a terrible tragedy, but it was James Holmes, not "they", i.e. the ammo dealers, who took their daughter's life.

These ammunition dealers are no more to blame for his murders than the car dealer who sold him the car he used.