Class action lawsuit update

Hello, the yarn lady here.  I received word this morning that one of the dogs that I had mentioned in my blog has signed on to the class action lawsuit.  Bucky, who lives in the house in Mary Land that Peep’s Mommy stays at during the week, has signed on.  The lawyer says he has also received inquiries from about 250 other dogs who are considering signing on.  The odd thing is that according to Google metrics, the site visits for my blog don’t match up with the number of dogs who may join the lawsuit.  Since the suit doesn’t seek any financial settlement, this doesn’t make any sense to either me or my lawyer.  He’s going to send me the information on these dogs so I can try to find out how they even became aware of the suit.  Cooper understands I’m trying to control my legal fees, so I get to do the legwork on this.  

The lawyer also made an informal inquiry to the court about the format of the lawsuit, as it has some major irregularities.  For one, I am cited in the suit only as “The Yarn Lady”.  How in the world can the US District Court accept that?  They throw out suits for failure to document proper delivery of documents, so how can they hear a suit where my name isn’t even right?  The reply Cooper got was interesting.  He was told the title, “Yarn Lady” could be considered as a “also known as” (AKA) since I refer to myself by that name in the blog.  The suit might need to be amended prior to trial to include my full name, as well as more identification for the dogs who have signed on to the suit.  Dog licenses, veterinary records or AKC registered names would be considered sufficient for the purposes of the court.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  

The most glaring issue of all is the individuals who are the plaintiffs.  They are dogs, and as such do not currently have the legal standing needed to bring a case to trial.  Lawsuits about animals are brought by humans on behalf of the animals, and the humans need to prove that they have been injured in some way by the actions of the defendant.  Those injuries don’t have to be physical, but still I don’t see how my blog has injured anyone!  I’m guessing the dogs filed the suit this way because they realized they couldn’t prove injury to humans, but I still don’t get how they intend to get the case into court.  Even if legislation, such as that which might be introduced or supported by Sax Chambliss, a well-known animal rights advocate currently serving in the US Senate, were to be made into law, the suit would predate any such law.  

Cooper says I just need to take a chill pill and wait it out.  He’s confident that even if the list of plaintiffs gets longer than my arm the suit won’t make it into court.  I need to trust my lawyer, so I’m going to go play with my kitties now.  Have a nice day.