From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: Libel Suits
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 16:05:52 GMT

In article <11339@optilink.UUCP> samlb@optilink.UUCP (Sam Bassett) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.194919.4835@watson.ibm.com> mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman) writes:
>>Our lawyers
>>may be able to eliminate part of that problem.  If that isn't what we pay
>>the corporation for, what is?
>
>	It is not clear to me that the Society even _has_ regular legal
>counsel, nor what the budget items for "Legal Services" really get us.
>	Anecdotal evidence (unconfirmed rumors) indicate that the BoD and
>Steward have been less than agressive in the past about taking legal
>action to protect the Society from various sorts of legal harassment.

There are a few of us that try to take some of the pressure off the
Steward by providing shoulders to cry on in various ways, and
occasional interesting stories come up . . .

It seems there is a fundamentalist Christian preacher in the southeast
parts of the US that likes to (among other things) claim that SCA is
for "Satan's Church in America".  You can see where his 'thinking'
leads.  Hilary keeps such eye as she can on his activities.  She is
waiting for him to put his head into a sufficiently effective noose
that, when she starts the legal ball rolling, she can shut him down
once and for all.  What she *doesn't* want is endless (expensive)
litigation that merely adds fuel to his fire, but a single decisive
action that puts him out of business.

The same arguements apply to other claims, charges, rumors, and what
not from other sources.  My advice is:  document them thuroughly and
send a copy to the Steward--but nail it down the best you can and keep
your eyes open for solid data.  (In this context, consider how Master
Ioseph got his document.  It is rather unlikely--in my untrained
opinion--that citing a BBS as a source is likely to prove effective in
a court.)

The flip side of this is that gathering *favorable* data on the
Society from external sources is beneficial.  A case in point:  The
local business/real estate group in the Rockridge area of Oakland, CA
made a calendar to sell.  Local stores there carry it.  It has
historical pictures of the area and pictures of current activities of
interest.  One of those pictures is of the local fighter practice that
takes place at the Rockridge BART station parking lot.  The
*existence* of the calendar fairly shouts "this is normal, socially
acceptable behavior".  This is *immensely* useful stuff to ahve on
hand in case a court case comes along (either started by the SCA or
against it).  Another useful thing to keep track of is any 'pillars of
society' you may have in your local group.  Ministers and other church
officials are especially valuable as 'cahracter witnesses' for the
SCA.  One of our oldest members (he was at that very famous party . . .)
is a retired Master Machinist who was active in union local for many
years (including on his union's negotiating committee).  Put yourself
in a judges shoes and think about having this sort of person brought
in as witness that the SCA is a good 'corporate citizen', when the
other side can be shown to be people that can't even get our name
straight and all their claims can be shown to be false in fact.

	--Hal

        Hal Ravn, Province of the Mists, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    "Boycott Time-Warner"
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |         --J. Danforth Quayle
510-823-5447                 |    "... kill all the lawyers."
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |         --William Shakespeare