Wednesday, August 15, 2007

More Pro Se Fun

Wow, it's almost enough to make me feel sorry for Michael Vick. Not really, but almost. He's being sued by an inmate who claims:

Jonathan Lee Riches filed the handwritten complaint over 'theft and abuse of my animals' on July 23 in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va.

Riches alleges that Vick stole two white mixed pit bull dogs from his home in Holiday, Fla., and used them for dogfighting operations in Richmond, Va. The complaint goes on to allege that Vick sold the dogs on eBay and 'used the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government.'
As for damages, he's asking for "$63,000,000,000 billion dollar." Whether he held his pinky finger up Dr. Evil style when he wrote that is unknown.

Did I mention this was a pro se lawsuit? Of course it is!

2 comments:

Shark Girl said...

Why do courts allow stuff like this?

JD Byrne said...

Well, the bottom line is that anybody can sue anyone at anytime under any theory they like. The most a court can do is dismiss the case and order the plaintiff to pay fees. I'm assuming that the guy suing Vick is broke, so there's no chance those would ever be recovered, anyway.

In cases where a prisoner has repeated filed frivolous/harrassing suits courts have put some barriers in their way to filing new cases (up front fees, etc.). You have to strike a balance, tho', between keep these cases off the docket and denying people access to the courts.