Our client was a respected and published author. He was shocked to find that an online news outlet had published hundreds of articles under his name which he did not author nor authorize. Some of the articles were contrary to his views and his prior published works. Our client even lost some opportunities to do film reviews because some of the unauthorized articles made him appear to be polarizing in his politics. We filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court alleging both statutory and common law misappropriation. The defendant suggested that our client could only obtain a maximum of a $750 statutory penalty because the complaint only had one statutory misappropriation claim. In response, we voluntarily amended the complaint to include 470 separate causes of action for statutory misappropriation. There was a cause of action for each unauthorized article and the complaint was 215 pages. This strategy led to a push for mediation. We obtained a six figure settlement for our client
