When it appeared porn star Janice Griffith intended to sue millionaire poker player Dan Bilzerian, he called her bluff.
Poker-playing lawyer Tom Goldstein (pictured) wrote lawyer Shoham Solouki a letter after Griffith claimed a broken foot and $85,000 in damages. Goldstein analyzes the evidence at hand: a video of Bilzerian throwing a naked Griffith off a building into a pool below.
“Like your client, the facts of the claim won’t, quite, fly,” Goldstein writes. “The tape shows the two carefully practicing this flight of fancy under Hustler’s direction, and your client expressly agreed to go ahead. In legal lingo, she assumed the risk.” He also notes that the scene was part of a rehearsed photo shoot, mused on the reasonable standard of care for throwing a porn actor off a roof, and said that Bilzerian will not settle and Griffith “will obviously lose.”
Finally, Goldstein raises the ante and asserts the claim as frivilous. “Your client should just box up almost every last bit of her property (please exclude all videos and photographs, as well as the seemingly inevitable small yappy dog) and drop it off with you in safekeeping for Mr. Bilzerian,” Goldstein writes.
Check out our feature, “Shut Up! The Art of Cease-and-Desist Letters,” in the July 2018 issue of the ABA Journal.