Why We’re Stuck With $650,000 in Legal Fees, Despite Beating the Billionaire Who Sued Us


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!

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

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