Law Schools, Technology

Law Grad Files Rambling Lawsuit Against Twitter And Her Law School

She missed some important lessons in law school...

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east-campusThere’s a lot of talk out there about law schools working to guarantee that their graduates are “practice ready.” Some dismiss the concept as an empty buzzword tossed around by lower-tier law schools. Others see the potential to ditch an empty third-year curriculum and turn it into something students can use. Wherever you fall on the “practice ready” hype train, we all agree that law schools should at the very least produce graduates capable of formatting a “complaint.”

The University of San Diego School of Law apparently failed to clear that threshold when it came to recent graduate Tiffany Dehen.

Dehen is miffed that someone created a parody account — that was explicitly identified as a parody — on Twitter skewering her right-wing beliefs. Frankly, it’s kind of low-hanging fruit since Dehen’s actual Twitter account is a mind-numbing succession of Tomi Lahren tributes, James O’Keefe apologism, mind-droppings from admitted criminal Dinesh D’Souza, and even an InfoWars video. The parody account basically accused Dehen of being a Tomi Lahren wannabe, which… this feed doesn’t exactly disprove.

Dehen, like all conservatives tired of the namby-pamby liberal snowflakes out there took the whole thing in stride. Nah. She sued the John Doe behind the account and, for good measure, her law school and Twitter.

In lieu of a complaint, she wrote herself a “Brief” and attached that to a complaint cover sheet because apparently we’re filing briefs as pleadings now. She did reserve her right to file an amended complaint when she secured legal counsel — easily the best legal move she makes in this whole story, by the way. An even better one would have involved talking to a lawyer before trying to sue someone over a parody, but beggars can’t be choosers, which, coincidentally, is a fair representation of her Tweets about the poor.

As Techdirt notes:

The lawsuit… well… it doesn’t reflect well on the University of San Diego law school and its ability to prepare lawyers. I don’t know if the law school didn’t teach Ms. Dehen about California’s anti-SLAPP law, but she’s likely about to get a quick post-graduate lesson about it. I won’t even get into the reasons why this is unlikely to be defamation (parody, people, parody…), but the fact that Twitter and USD are included… is pretty nutty. Twitter will get out of the case pretty damn easily under Section 230 (does the University of San Diego law school not teach Section 230?!?).

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Missing anti-SLAPP and Section 230 in law school isn’t too surprising. If a student isn’t taking those classes, those could easily be missed entirely. But “the First Amendment protects parody” is a lesson that absolutely is covered in the core curriculum and should have given her at least enough pause to seek out legal advice before filing. As is, the claims she makes are less than inspiring:

She gives the company a grand total of two days of notice? And then I didn’t know that “absolutely ridiculous” processes (which she doesn’t actually seem to understand or describe) are illegal. I’d like to know the statute that says “absolutely ridiculous” policies for dealing with parody accounts are illegal, because, man, that would be useful. Oh, and “unconstitutional.” Wha….? This is just… so, so awful.

She’s asking for $100 million by the way. No further commentary needed on that.

I’m assuming she felt that her “amended complaint” could cure these defects. A poor assumption since Dehen seems to be having some trouble when she talks to lawyers who are actually practice ready:

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Indeed.

Holy hell she even seeks damages for getting in a car accident on the way to filing the suit!

Further, on the way to Federal Court in Downtown Sand Diego to file this complaint, Plaintiff was involved in a collision on the I-5 Freeway headed South, which resulted in neck and back pain for which Plaintiff is now seeking medical attention. Please see Exhibit 39.

Those aren’t damages you see very often, but San Diego is a crazy town.

The sad thing about this is that she complains of reputational damage because a parody account no one reads pointed people to the offensive stuff she actually posts in public only supercharges the risk that a prospective employer will see the stuff.

In fact, her Twitter feed celebrates the newfound attention she’s as more people hear about this story, seemingly unaware that this is much more likely to cause her harm than a dumb account that 6 USD students probably threw together while high.

But the Streisand Effect is a harsh mistress. If USD wanted to start down the road of forging practice ready graduates, maybe a little social media training would be a good start.

(Full complaint — and “Brief” — on the next page….)

Recent Law School Grad Sues Twitter Because Someone Made A Parody Twitter Account [Techdirt]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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