(Updated – again)

Hat tip to Courtney Milan for posting links to the latest filings in the defamation lawsuit that Ellora’s Cave brought against Dear Author and Jane Litte.

Who knew one could outright giggle while reading court documents?

A choice bit, from page 13 (please note I redacted Ms Litte’s legal name):

The public perception of the company, prior to Ms. Litte’s article, was that its founder, Ms. Engler, was notoriously difficult to work with, was a generally offensive person, who mismanaged money, who had a history of being delinquent on her taxes, who maintained an offensive and embarrassing social media profile, who suffers from severe mental health issues,who engages in nepotism at the expense of other employees, and who was generally incapable of running a large successful company

You don’t say!

Mind you, it’s very sobering to realize that responding to this vexatious lawsuit is costing Jane Litte thousands of dollars, and will cost a lot more than that before it’s all said and done, without even going into the stress of it all.

And it behooves all of us bloggers, whether writers or reviewers, that there’s no telling whether or not Ellora’s Cave, Tina Engler/Jaid Black et al, may decide to file other lawsuits regardless of how this one ends (though I’m gonna call it right now and say: not gonna end well for EC).

But when a lawyer for the defense refers to the plaintiff as a child throwing a tantrum, an observer may be moved to–at the very least–smile. This document is in the public record, and as such the whole story of how a First Amendment Badass gave Ellora’s Cave a sound smack down is there for everyone to see.

Schadenfreude, some may say. Perhaps. Considering the circumstances that bring about my enjoyment of a court filing in a defamation case, I don’t much care about that opinion.

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Want moar? Read it at Courtney Milan’s: The exciting world of the TRO (temporary restraining order for us laypeople)

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Another update–cribbed from here:

And while all this is going on, we should keep in mind that as of the filing of the Opposition on Tuesday, Jane’s cost were already approaching $30,000 (or would have been if Mr Randazza hadn’t agreed to represent her at a discount–even with that discount, I’m scared to think of the bottom line on that bill).

Jane had set aside $20,000 of her own money, and we, romance readers and authors, fans and detractors of Dear Author and of Jane alike, raised another $50,000 in a weekend. In the time since, another $4,000 plus have been donated via the GoFundMe platform; from those who are boycotting GoFundMe, SBSarah received donations through alternative means, yet other people donated using PayPal (with a note in the buyer’s instructions–see the Dear Author/Jane Litte Defense Fund page for instructions on all three alternatives).

I urge anyone and everyone who can, to help. We truly don’t know how far will TE/JB be willing to take this, but judging from previous instances, it may well be a long, slow slog.

(edited once more because I can’t spell schadenfreude)