Legal T hriller Writer John Grisholm Sued

Grisham

Linda Adams said:

This is a story in the Washington Post about a lawsuit resulting from John Grisham's attempts to be an amatuer detective: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202221.html

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Sounds like he deserves it. Investigating is one thing, but you have to know what is and isn't invasion of privacy, and to me, Grisham clearly went beyond the legal bounds here.

Especially abhorrent is the detective who told her to stop writing the letters. Can you imagine how you'd feel? A big-time author (and member of the school's board) against little ol' you?

Weird.

ltd.

Hope she wins big - her school medical forms were protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (a Federal law!) and the school could also be sued if they knowingly gave her information to outsiders.

Writers aren't cops or private investigators. Real cops are sworn & have training in investigations. Real private investigators are supposed to be trained & licensed. When they screw up, there are real consequences.

Ouch. Seems he thought he was living in one of his novels. Should have let the police handle the matter.

It all sounds fine to me...except the part about taking the confidential documents. If they wanted a handwriting sample, surely there would have been many pages of this woman's handwriting to be found. Why take the confidential pages? The detective going to 'talk to her' sounds a little wacky as well.

I would say that Grisham will have to pay her some cash and that will be that. I would also say that if this had not been John Gri$ham, this woman wouldn't have been nearly as 'emotionally di$tre$$ed'.

So Grisham and his buddies fucked up and now this lady, Almy, is taking a little back. I'm cool with it.

There is surely more to this than has been reported here. Did they just pick this woman out of a hat? Why suspect her?

And who is this letter writer and how hard are they laughing right now?

Inkdaub said:

It all sounds fine to me...except the part about taking the confidential documents. If they wanted a handwriting sample, surely there would have been many pages of this woman's handwriting to be found. Why take the confidential pages? The detective going to 'talk to her' sounds a little wacky as well.

I would say that Grisham will have to pay her some cash and that will be that. I would also say that if this had not been John Gri$ham, this woman wouldn't have been nearly as 'emotionally di$tre$$ed'.

So Grisham and his buddies fucked up and now this lady, Almy, is taking a little back. I'm cool with it.

There is surely more to this than has been reported here. Did they just pick this woman out of a hat? Why suspect her?

And who is this letter writer and how hard are they laughing right now?

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I don't think her distress had anything to do with it being Grisham. I've seen similar situations many times, and the distress is always there, always real. Being accused of something like this can ruin your standing in the community, and cost you a great deal in both finacial and personal relationships.

Since it was Grisham, she may get more money, but I think she would have been just as distressed, and I think it would have been just as likely to wind up in court, no matter who did it.

Those documents were illegally obtained and Grisham and his half-baked gang need a legal whack on the nose for that if nothing else.

The school should also busted on this one for allowing them access to private files.

If he was so bothered by the source of the letters then he's certainly got the bucks hire a real PI to look into things properly.

And oh--hey--there's the cops--they're available.

And reporting it to the Post Office wouldn't hurt. I think such harrassing mails are a Federal crime.

If some jerk is slipping notes under doors you can get a "Nanny cam" to catch the perp. Then you turn what you found over to the cops.

If something is private and confidential you use a court-order not the freakin' Ant-Hill Mob and Chugga-Boom.



Once the legal dust settles, he and his pals need to write a groveling letter of apology to the lady.

And it needs to be in the local paper.