Lawrence Hughes Class Action Website (page 3)

plmkrzy

Ok I'll be the second person to ask

Who is Lawence Hughes?

UnDisfellowshipped

I think Lawrence Hughes is the "Shunned Father" who fought against the Watchtower Society's No-Blood Policy for his daughter, but I am not sure.

Angharad

Thats him Undisfellowshipped

Lawrence Hughes is the Shunned father from Calgary.

Edited by - angharad on 17 September 2002 7:9:55

teenyuck

Christian Scientists need to be sued--no medical stuff

Mormons need to be sued--took 10% of my income and made me take 3 wives

Catholics need to be sued--I gave you money for the pope and you gave it to fight a law suit

Muslims can be sued--No virgins in heaven; I came down and told my terrorist family

As jws noted, every religion has stupid rules and regulations. You can walk away. You can leave. The arguement that it is emotionally damaging is true. However, if I could sue everyone who emotionally damaged me, I would be a multi-millionaire.

You all realize that class action lawsuits serve one purpose? Namely to line the attorney's pockets. The attorney always wins. The intimidation factor is key. Get lots of people together, have them all tell a similar story and the "defendant" goes on the offense; they settle rather than go to trial--much more costly to drag a lawsuit out. The problem is that the WTS has lots of money and volunteer lawyers. They are way ahead of any attorney coming at them.

You end up sharing 60% of the suit, minus costs for filing, copying, etc. That is 60% minus another 10-20% for costs. These things take years to settle.

I do not think it is a good idea. As jw pointed out, get after them for real hurt-molestation issues etc. Even no blood will not fly. The Christian Scientists promote no medical care. Lots of their members die.

plmkrzy

You all realize that class action lawsuits serve one purpose? Namely to line the attorney's pockets.

Tha is very true. If this was a winable case every hot shot lawyer would be in touch and there would possibly be no "Up-front" costs to the victim/s. Paying a lawyer thousands of dollars up front in a case like this is like using it for confetti. What lawyer wouldn't take the case even knowing he/she would lose? Its free money.

RunningMan

Much of the damage caused by the society is in the realm of religion, which most courts will want to avoid. However, there are a few areas where they are vulnerable:

1. Child molestation. They cannot claim freedom of religion when covering up abuse. This is outside of the jurisdiction of religion. The Catholic and Anglican churches have already lost these cases. The courts have already drawn the line on this one. This is by far their biggest risk.

2. Blood transfusions. They could get away with this one if they had been consistent. But, their changing, inconsistent stand, and obvious coersion to adhere will get them into trouble.

3. Shunning that results in death. The courts have established the ability of a religion to shun a person. This is not in doubt. But, when the shunning is done to a person who is known to be emotionally fragile, and it precipitates suicide, murder, or other damage, the link to the original action may be established.

Best of all, if 10,000 victims come forward, the weight of evidence becomes overwhelming. And, the stakes are massive. The society may or may not win this one, but they better be scared.

deddaisy

the hypocrisies of one more organization that hides behind the curtain of religious freedom will then be public record.

Let's see, hundreds praised for being baptised as minors, after being indoctrinated as children, then shunned by families and supposed life-long friends as adults after being disfellowshipped for questioning the U.N. involvement and other hypocrisies. (The judge should find it interesting that the WTS teaches its members that the U.N. is the Beast of Revelation)

Let's see, others shunned after church disfellowshipped them, according to WTS standards, for allowing un-baptized infants and children to receive life-saving blood transfusions.

Let's see, loss of consortium of mother after she commited suicide after being shunned after being disfellowshipped for divorcing her abusive husband.

Let's see...........

WTS: "Your honor, these alleged disfellowshippings for simply asking questions of the church, or saving the lives of their children are exaggerated! We have quite a few members that have testified that we don't easily disfellowship. In fact, we have, as evidence, several videos made by our members, in good standing, from prison."

edited yet again to add: does anyone remember the old Dannon yogurt case, actually Dannon settled out of court to avoid the publicity. The lady claimed that the berry yogurt had a piece of a bug-shell in a piece of berry. This was not disputed because bugs in berries are not uncommon. Anyway, she claimed that eating a bug part caused such emotional trauma that her hair began falling out, etc. That bug was a walk in the park compared to the WTS..........

Edited by - deddaisy on 17 September 2002 16:24:29

Edited by - deddaisy on 17 September 2002 21:21:54

Edited by - deddaisy on 17 September 2002 21:38:50

ThiChi

JWS:

Thanks for your reply. Though I part company with you on some points, I do very much respect your viewpoints and the "spirit" of your post.

Trauma_Hound

If the case won't be taken pro bono, then there is no point in persuing it, because the lawyer doesn't believe the case is truley winable. Most good lawyers, at least in the states, will take a case pro bono, for a cut of what is taken, if they think the case is winable. I was just part of a class action lawsuit against microsoft that was settled for 92 Million dollars.

Edited by - Trauma_Hound on 17 September 2002 21:30:20

plmkrzy

If the case won't be taken pro bono, then there is no point in persuing it, because the lawyer doesn't believe the case is truley winable

AMEN

Lawrence Hughes Class Action Website

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