Lawsuits are occupational hazards for anti-cult blogger Rick Ross.
Sued a half-dozen times during the past decade for his public pronouncements, especially on the Internet, he's managed to win all but one case, with the help of pro bono counsel. His latest close call came in December when Landmark Education, a promoter of self-help seminars, withdrew with prejudice its federal suit in Newark alleging defamation.
But Ross, of Jersey City, knows certain groups still have him in their sights. Posts on his Web pages -- culteducation.com, cultnews.com and rickross.com -- are replete with data about what he labels as cults or otherwise suspect entities, including al-Qaida, the Ku Klux Klan, the Church of Scientology, Jews for Jesus and Amway.
"If I wasn't getting sued by some of these groups, I'd wonder if my work was really having an effect," he says. "The fact that Landmark Education sued me was a testimony to the power of the Internet."
"These organizations don't like critical dissent and that is clearly why people are pissed off at him," says Douglas Brooks, of Boston's Gilman & Pastor, who has represented Ross in litigation. "I think he's always going to have to worry about suits."
Details here from the New Jersey Law Journal via Law.com.