This article was originally meant to analyze the Fallen Productions, Inc. cases, but to get to these cases, I first did an analysis of the HB Productions, Inc. cases because the same attorneys (Michael Hierl & William Kalbac from “HSPRD”) are representing both movie company copyright holders… and you know my opinion that there is a connection between each of the movie companies who are suing for copyright infringement.
However, in viewing the HB Productions, Inc. cases, I saw something that — while it COULD be nothing at all — stank. As a father and a oil-and-gas Texan, this “stink” is something I am well aware of, and I am writing this article because Illinois attorneys, you could be having one of your own who is “drinking your milkshake.“ (Movie Reference: There Will Be Blood.)
When something stinks, we look below the surface and do some real legwork.
When a copyright infringement lawsuit looks “too orderly,” something is often missing from the picture. Here, we have a movie copyright troll who files a pile of lawsuits in one federal court, the judge orderly and cooperatively grants the plaintiff attorney (here, Michael Heirl (“HSPRD”)) permission to send ISP subpoena notification letters to Comcast account holders, and everything moves towards settlement — always with the same Chicago defense attorney listed on the docket — without a peep, without a fight, without a whimper. This is too orderly.
As I have said many times before, there could be nothing wrong here. Just as the plaintiff attorney could be a marketing genius so that coincidentally, all of the movie companies choose that attorney to file the lawsuits against the defendants… so too the settlement attorney.
I also can only see what is written in the dockets themselves — the filings, the PDF files, the documents, and the attachments. I cannot see the correspondences between the settlement attorney and the plaintiff attorney. For all we know, the settlement attorney could also be such a marketing genius that the other Illinois attorney did not catch on that this attorney was representing so many settling defendants and not one defendant that actually fought back.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
Am I my brother’s keeper when that brother (or sister) is in a different state, licensed under a different bar association having different rules? Let’s talk specifics. It appears to me that nobody noticed the neatly packaged HB Productions, Inc. (“Hellboy” movie) Illinois cases which were filed from 10/2019 – 11/2019, where pretty much every case contained the identically timed settlements by the same “defense” attorney. Wouldn’t it be even more suspicious that that same defense attorney never actually fought the Michael Heirl or his HSPRD law firm, even though they filed these same HB Productions, Inc. lawsuits against hundreds of defendants?
Did Michael Heirl achieve a 100% success rate by having every defendant accused of downloading movies respond with “You’re right, let me pay you.” Did NOT ONE client of this settlement attorney say, “I did not do it, it was not me!” Or did that settlement attorney whisper in the ear of each defendant client that “it is cheaper to settle than to fight?”
“Look under your nose.”
This is the part that bugs me. Chicago is a place where the “bittorrent defense” world has some very aggressive attorneys [no names] who fight tooth-and-nail to grab every single possible defendant who gets enmeshed in a bittorrent-based copyright infringement lawsuit in the Illinois Northern District Court. These attorneys really work hard to answer every phone call, hire staff to take free consultations to lure every defendant to be their client, and to boot, they have a pretty good looking website.
Yet, here is one case where the same attorney — under their nose — appears to have taken every case, every settlement, despite the fact that the larger law firm has significantly more money and time invested in advertising for Illinois’ share of the “ISP Subpoena Notification” copyright infringement cases.
Illinois attorneys, were you not interested in fighting your own state’s cases?
I would consider using the word “settlement factory,” to this individual who has beaten the more aggressive law firm without it knowing about this person (a settlement factory is an attorney who pretends to litigate cases, only to lure in accused defendants and convince them in a “bait and switch” way to settle the claims against them — even if they did not do the downloads or view the copyrighted videos they are claimed to have downloaded or viewed). However, I know that both attorneys read my website (I see the logs) and so at least one of them will become quite inflamed by this article.
The question becomes — which of them will become inflamed? The one who’s quiet operation was just interrupted? Or the one who just realized someone is taking away their clients?
I always think four or five times before posting an article like this, but since I can document exactly what I am referring to with EVERY CASE DOCKET in Illinois for the HB Productions, Inc. 2019 cases, let’s see where this goes. Which one of you will become inflamed by this article?
Scenario #1) (Think, “David.”) Could it be the one who has been quietly settling cases under the nose of the other, now angry at me for exposing what could be “cottage industry” cooperation between the plaintiff attorney and that defense attorney?
(For example, “I’ll sue defendants, refer them to you, and you convince them to settle the claims against them. I make the profits, and you charge the clients your legal fees.)
Scenario #2) (Think, “Goliath”) Could it be the one who just realized that [after thousands of dollars put into a professional website, having staff who no doubt cost a lot to answer and capture every phone call, who wrote countless blog articles on the most recent set of lawsuits “15 people sued today by so-and-so copyright troll” every other day, and spending who-knows-how-many-dollars on Google Adwords search engine advertising campaigns], he was beat by someone who does absolutely none of this.
Price wars appear to be happening too (based on what I am told each of you is charging clients vs. what each of you have reportedly charged over the years).
Either way, I am merely poking fun at competition that I sometimes see going on behind the scenes between attorneys who are competing for the same Illinois clients. Funny enough, based on the prices [I am told] each one of you is charging, the fight does not seem to be only related to who gets the client, but rather, who gets the client by lowering your price below the other to be the cheaper alternative? It is even funnier when other attorneys (e.g., “yes, you from California“) jump in and try to undercut Illinois “Goliath” to get the client by offering a flat-rate slightly less than the Illinois attorney charges.
How I even know about this topic.
I will obviously keep some of these things to myself, but I do speak to individuals who call me to ask about other attorneys, and very often, because my client list might be full or because I feel that another attorney would better serve that individual, I will refer them to another attorney (obviously never asking for referral fees or anything other than a “thank you” from that attorney).
Competition and “Survival of the Fittest.”
Point being, some “bittorrent defense” and “ISP subpoena notification” attorneys (you both love your SEO keywords) are fighting with each other on the price, and I will always encourage some healthy competition. When one attorney gets all the business — it doesn’t matter whether it is “David,” “Goliath,” or whoever — one person who “takes all” causes the other one to eventually go out of business.
Yes, Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” you might think, but NO. An individual accused of copyright infringement and sued for $150,000 for the unlawful download or streaming of some second-rate movie that is probably on the $5 clearance shelves of Wal*Mart deserves to have CHOICE between multiple attorneys who can help him (or her) resolve the claims against him (ugh, or her).
Thus, I am telling “Goliath” with this article to pay better attention to your home turf. Because, as the Texans meme goes, “Someone is drinking your milkshake.”
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[CONTACT AN ATTORNEY: Many of my articles on Torrentlawyer are meant to be educational for the accused downloader. No doubt, this one had a different audience in mind. If you would like to speak to me about your particular lawsuit, or if you have questions on anything else I have written here, you can e-mail me at [email protected], you can set up a free and confidential phone consultation to speak to us about your circumstances, or you can call us at 713-364-3476 (this is our Cashman Law Firm, PLLC’s number].
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