They’re often called SLAPP lawsuits, a frivolous suit filed just to shut up an annoying critic. The acronym stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” SLAPPS were sometimes used by major companies to hush up environmentalists. Sometimes it was used the other way around. The bottom line was that lawyers were hired to cause the other side great expense and great anxiety, nothing more, nothing less.
SLAPP lawsuits have made their way into the world of Homeowners Associations, too. If you don’t like the neighborhood critic, just hammer him with a SLAPP lawsuit. But there’s a troubling little annoyance called ‘The First Amendment’, and a troubling little Supreme Court decision called ‘New York Times vs. Sullivan’ that essentially says if you’re a public figure you’ll get nailed if you try to jam up the Free Speech rights of the neighborhood critic. A public figure has to be able to prove ‘actual malice’ in a lawsuit against someone who’s just expressing an honest opinion about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s more complex, of course, but I go into the subject in detail in my new book, “Neighbors At War!”
But the commentary linked below shows that it can be very expensive for an HOA board member to use neighborhood monies to fund a lawsuit against the local loudmouth. Nobody wins in these idiotic SLAPP lawsuits. Everybody loses, that is, with the exception of the lawyers who file and defend such lawsuits. They always make money. That’s why there are so many lawyer jokes in the public discourse.
The wisest words in the story linked below: Get over it. Move on.
What’s difficult to understand about the word ‘accountability’? Texas is one of a number of states where legislation is pending which would reign in the massive power of private HOA management companies. Homeowners in Texas, and elsewhere, are tired of being ripped off by arbitrary fines, punitive social controls, predatory towing of vehicles, confiscatory debt collection practices, abusive lawsuits, and massive embezzlement from the budgets of Homeowners Associations. This is not a hard problem to understand. Your home is your castle. Isn’t it?
But on the other side of the accountability aisle are State Representatives and Senators who’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars for supposedly ‘managing’ planned communities. They hover like birds-of-prey over the neighborhoods they supervise, and the moment any weakness is spotted they swoop down and make a kill strike on a beleaguered homeowner, liening his home and selling it at auction before the homeowner can even catch his breath.
As good as this pending bill is, it doesn’t have a ghost of a chance of passage. The powers that be rake in too much money. An accountability bill would murder their profit margins.
I used to live in Texas. I never thought Texans were stupid.
Not sure why the game of Monopoly always led to fights when we were kids. Someone would invariably cheat, the others would protest, and….there went the neighborhood!
Same thing goes on today in many American Homeowners Associations! Your new retirement community seems perfect, the dues seem about right. Suddenly, without notice the rules change. Monthly dues skyrocket from $180 to $500 a month, with even more hikes on the way.
When you weren’t watching the rules changed. They changed because a new developer or a new majority took over the HOA. Now, you suddenly find yourself foreclosed upon, or you’re priced right out of the neighborhood where you once had your dream home.
It’s been an interesting evening just casually surfing around the Internet. Haven’t done that for awhile. There’s just too much work involved in researching and writing my daily blog to go back to the casual surfing that I used to do.
But I’ve noticed that the recent hacker attacks that took down and trashed my website have actually ended up scattering 300 to 500 of my past web posts all over the Internet! My old webposts used to be pretty well organized and confined just to NeighborsAtWar.com. But a search of “ward lucas” or “ward lucas hoa” show that the “gods of the Internet” never forget anything. And a trashed website actually leads to multiple sites around the world spreading the message of our Homeowners Rights Movement.
So, rather than condemn the recent hackers who caused us so much work, we’re just happy to sit back and bask in the kind of sunlight that brings enlightenment to people who’ve wondered if they’re all alone in their fight against the neighborhood ‘lawn nazis’. No, my friends, you are not alone. You are part of an awakening. You and your HOA problems are potentially viral.
“Dear God, thank You for free speech. It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s the only thing that keeps a free society free. Thank you, God.”
One of the weblogs that was lost in my recent hacker attack is going to be re-written here, simply because I have a quick break in my schedule. No, maybe it’s because I’m a little bit bored right now. But it has to do with the recent incident where Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill was outraged after being manhandled by an airport TSA worker.
LOL! I had a similar experience right after 9-11 while returning to Denver after giving a speech in New Orleans. I was dressed in my customary business suit and tie, minding my own business, when a female guard pulled me out of the line of passengers for ‘special’ treatment. I was told to stand at a spot about six feet away from my fellow travelers and spread my legs. This woman then dropped to her knees in front of me and began the patdown of all patdowns. She touched places that haven’t been touched since my honeymoon. I was speechless. The nearby passengers were speechless.
When this woman had thoroughly handled all my potentially dangerous body parts she instructed me to return to my place in the line. Talk about shock and awe. The passenger right behind me whispered in my ear, “Well, did she find out if you’re circumcised?”
Every word of that story is true.
Back to Senator Claire McCaskill. It’s interesting to hear you whining about the TSA, Senator. But now you know what the rest of us have had to endure for the past 12 years!
