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Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker: Market Savant & Radio Host -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boca_PETE who wrote (3685)	2/28/1998 5:58:00 PM
From: Fredric D. Bellamy	Respond to of 42834

>>"would you share your opinion as to whether or not the ladies could be held liable in a class action for the scam they seem to have pulled, despite the obscure caveat in their book ?"<< Thanks for the welcome to the forum; I've been a lurker here for awhile and it has interested me in following Bob Brinker's show the last several months. My off-the-cuff reaction is that the Beardstown Ladies conceivably could be sued in a class action for consumer fraud (or similar legal theories), although proving any damages beyond the price of the book would be problematical. The suit could be styled similarly to the class action a few years ago against the pop group "Milli Vanilli" (I'm not sure that I've got that name right). The "singers" admitted to having lip-synched their way through appearances, while others' voices actually appeared on the album. I think that we can fairly assume that the Ladies' publisher's lawyers have anticipated this possibility, and that's (in part if not in whole) why the publisher added the disclaimer to the book. The Ladies are denying having sought the disclaimer themselves. They also are disavowing any "intent" to fool anyone--therein lies another potential legal defense--which raises the possibility that the Ladies are among the least qualified individuals in the nation to be offering anyone else investment advice. Any person who can't calculate a rate of return (and isn't sufficiently aware of that inability to hire someone else or to buy a computer program to perform the calculations) should not be offering investment advice to the public. Although a lawsuit is conceivable, I would not favor one. The courts are clogged, and there would be First Amendment issues involved in a non-libel case regarding statements in a book. (Indeed, if there were such a lawsuit, then the Ladies' lawyers certainly would move to dismiss the whole case on freedom-of-speech grounds.) Besides, any would-be plaintiff should hesitate in the face of the recent verdict against the beef interests in their suit against Oprah Winfrey--the national mood doesn't appear to be favorable to such suits. I believe that the Ladies' trial should not be held in a courthouse, but rather only in the "court of public opinion."