Higbee Case Study, Sadowski v. Bowling et al

[kingkendall]

This case involves a blogger that was sued by photographer Christopher Sadowski represented Higbee lawyer Rayminh L Ngo. 

Here's the key takeaway.  Higbee is not looking to go to trial.  He wants a default judgment which happens when a defendant fails to answer a complaint and summons.  Other than that Higbee looks to settle and if you wait him out and show a willingness to proceed to the end the more he'll want to settle.

Look what defendant Bowling was willing to do and how she refused to buckle.  Getting sued is not the end of the world.  Answer the lawsuit, counter sue if necessary, and put up a fight.  This is exactly what Higbee doesn't want.  He wants the low hanging fruit. 

Look at the below 

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/21515172/Sadowski_v_Bowling_et_al

[Matthew Chan]

I recommend using a non-profit service like CourtListener.com to display the docket because it works with RECAP.  When someone uses RECAP and pays for a Pacer document, it gives it "free" to Courtlistener.com.  Pacermonitor is a for-profit company marking up already expensive Pacer documents.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6222413/sadowski-v-bowling/

[icepick]

That is one of the reasons I'm amazed at how many settlements he even gets, primarily for cases filed in locations that he would have to travel to or that his client would have to travel to. Like that weed place he filed against for the Youngson guy in England, if I was a defendant in a Youngson suit I would be sitting that out until trial and force Youngson to show up + Higbee to pay some local attorneys to show up for trial. In Higbee's dream world he may get his legal fees in a judgment but I don't see clients getting travel fees as part of a judgment and that is out of pocket up front, so force their hand.

Once he files the pressure kind of shifts to Higbee for these far away cases after he loses on Summary Judgment because a trial date becomes inevitable, and that is the last thing he wants I'd wager.