Forbes reports that Prenda Law’s John Steele was questioned by Los Angeles District Judge Otis Wright over the way that he and his colleagues conducted litigation.

Court filings

Mr Steele and his collegues had filed over 350 suits which included some 20,000 people whose IP addresses had been caught when downloading the films.
According to the report, the lawyers used a tactic similar to that used by the recording industry in previous years. Content with small settlements – in the region of $3000 – the lawyers would encourage individuals to settle to avoid being named in public court filings for allegedly watching illegally downloaded films.

Extortion

However, judges across the US have expressed concerns about this method, while Internet service providers have also become wary of turning over user details to fuel the lawsuits – seeing it as a form of extortion on their customers.
Judge Wright asked whether money being gained from the lawsuits is going into the lawyers’ pockets, rather than to actual porn company clients.

Criminal prosecution

Appearing before the judge at a hearing earlier this week, Mr Steele pleaded the Fifth Ammendment in what legal blogger Ken White called ‘an extinction-level event’ for Prenda Law.
Mr White added that the use of Fifth Amendment rights is ‘utterly unprecedented in my experience as a lawyer’ as ‘in effect, the responsible lawyers for a law firm conducting litigation before a court have refused to explain that litigation to the court on the grounds that doing so could expose them to criminal prosecution.’
The case continues.