Ever since we wrote about MoJo‘s major victory in court against a billionaire political donor, you’ve been asking us: Can you recover your attorney’s fees? The answer, unfortunately, is pretty much:
Here’s why.
Under what is known as the American rule, everyone involved in litigation in the United States is responsible for his or her own legal fees, unless a specific state or federal law says otherwise. One exception involves anti-SLAPP statutes—state laws designed to prevent powerful people from shutting down critics by tying them up with expenses and paperwork, often via defamation lawsuits. (SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.) Twenty-nine states have laws against SLAPP suits, and there’s a push—championed by a Republican congressman from Texas—to pass one at the federal level as well.
Idaho, where Frank VanderSloot is based, and where he filed the defamation case against Mother Jones, does not have an anti-SLAPP law. What’s more, in her order granting victory to Mother Jones, the judge specified that VanderSloot’s was not a “frivolous” lawsuit. Under existing Idaho law, we would have to show, in front of the same judge, that the lawsuit was pursued “frivolously, unreasonably or without foundation” in order for her to let us recover attorney’s fees. Not very likely.
So that’s why we’re stuck with the $650,000 in out-of-pocket costs we incurred. Readers have pitched in more than $160,000 to help us cover that hole in just the past week. You can join them here. With you at our back, we can keep standing tall.
UPDATE: First Look Media’s Legal Defense Fund has agreed to match $74,999 in reader contributions to help us defray the cost of the litigation. Hooray!
