Milo Yiannopoulos v. Simon & Schuster, Inc. (2017) -

[Done]

I've tried to be charitable about interpreting this, but my charity runs out at some point. These assholes literally want to use evidence against Millo that he isn't even allowed to see.

This is fucking bullshit.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind me:

1) Given that the action seems like a civil suit (from reading the OP), are civil suits appealable?

2) If the answer to 1 is "Yes", would this constitute grounds for appeal? Or does the info contained in the document have bearing on that?

"It seems to me that I'm going to represent myself"

Did Milo actually file something to indicate that he will be a pro se litigant? Or is he just saying out loud that he may operate as his own counsel, so he can see the document and then bring in a new lawyer.

Because if he didn't, then the judge may not have assurance that Milo isn't just dicking him around.

But the thing is, is what the judge doing even legal? Is there any kind of precedent for this practice? And if so, then it may enlighten us to the judge's perspective and rationale.

 

[a big ass gohan]

Here's the source for those quotes from earlier today. A few notes:

• The purpose of the hearing was to confirm that Milo is parting ways with his attorneys and representing himself.
• It sounds like Milo can appoint new counsel whenever he wants.
• The documents in question contain "proprietary financial information" belonging to S&S. The judge seems convinced that this info isn't particularly relevant to the merits of the case and that Milo is wasting his time chasing after them. This letter from the defense goes into more detail about their concerns if you're curious, I haven't found the actual ruling yet.
• These documents were handed over with the understanding that they wouldn't be shared directly with Milo and the judge says he doesn't get to immediately weasel his way past that by representing himself. If Milo wants to challenge that decision he needs to file a written argument, which he hadn't done as of this hearing.

IANAL but I'm more inclined to assume that Milo's scheme isn't as brilliant as he thought it was than that the judge is on Simon & Schuster's payroll or whatever.

 

[Bryan Dunn]

We haven't been following this closely and if someone wants to go digging for documents I'd be appreciative.

A blue tickmark autist on Twitter summarized lately revelations as:

"Basically, Milo booted his lawyer in an attempt to access Simon and Schuster document from discovery that only his lawyer could see. But alas, the judge still won't let him see the documents now that he's his own lawyer."

To add to this, the entirety of the documents can be found here
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4369090-Milo-Transcript.html#document/p1

In case anyone else wants to go through it

 

[keksz]

So here's the part that confirms our theories so far: the financial documents were for attorney's eyes only with the explicit purpose of Milo not seeing them and the judge claims that these records are private and can't possibly be relevant for an individual faggot's breach-of-contract claim.

Spoiler: Screenshot

After that though, as his first pro-se address to the court, Milo immediately goes into a soapbox with the not-so-veiled claim of "but these documents are critical to my case and I absolutely need to see them MUH DOCUMENTS" even though the judge just said otherwise half a minute before. The judge then lets him know "this session has nothing to do with these documents, you can write me a letter and we'll have a session for that later on if you want" (with heavily implied eye-rolling).

The other interesting fact is that they should resume whatever comes next in a month or so, which means this shouldn't take too long to start moving forward again. At least it's my understanding.

Thanks @Detective_Exceptional. I like you already, you'll do fine around here

 

[a big ass gohan]

Milo just dropped the suit.

Here's what he posted on Facebook:

Spoiler

 

[Badger Bingo]

Looks like Milo is dropping the case according to UK press.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ap-yiannopoulos-dropping-lawsuit-against-former-publisher-2018-2

 

[Done]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

 

[Badger Bingo]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

Attention whore seek attention shocker.

 

[AnOminous]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

It looked better while he had a legal team and before S&S filed a reasonably good response. While I'm skeptical of his claim of making a million on the book, if he made a fraction of that, he'd have a hard time proving damages.

 

[Fulda's Gap]

For a dangerous faggot, he sure doesn't seem as such.

 

[:thinking:]

For a dangerous faggot, he sure doesn't seem as such.

That’s just him being HIV+

 

[Chromatic Collector]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

Yeah, a lot of indie authors have known they don't need publishing houses to succeed. It's called amazon ya fuckwit.

 

[:thinking:]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

Publicity, perhaps?

 

[Pikimon]

So why did he even launch the lawsuit? Seems like a lot of what he's boasting about at the end would have come to pass regardless of him suing..

Because he lied about everything in his post.

He didn't make "millions" from his book, nor did it ever become a New York Times Best Seller. In court documents his side filed, he said he only ended up making $3000 from the self-publishing of his book (this might be on top of the $80,000 he was able to keep from his advance).

To make millions, he would have had to sell like 350,000 copies at the price he had it which he didn't, unless he was accepting payment in Turkish lira or Nigerian dollars then ya he made "millions". And this is without going into the fact that this lawsuit likely didn't effect S&S in any meaningful way, and that this lawsuit is just going to be factored into normal legal expenses they have on a yearly basis.

Milo is basically doing this:

 

[Rio]

Milo just dropped the suit.

Here's what he posted on Facebook:

Spoiler

View attachment 386901

"I-I'm not giving up, I didn't drop it because I wouldn't win! Th-this was my plan all along! S-so there!"

 

[:thinking:]

"I-I'm not giving up, I didn't drop it because I wouldn't win! Th-this was my plan all along! S-so there!"

Pretty much. It was a publicity vs. legal costs fight and legal costs won.

 

[DragoonSierra]

"I-I'm not giving up, I didn't drop it because I wouldn't win! Th-this was my plan all along! S-so there!"

you forgot the baka