HA! Love this question. Forgive me to y’all who have heard this story already.
A couple years ago, my life was in a nice state of “cruise control”. I was making my living singing in cover bands. Not the most glamorous of careers, but I enjoyed my work. I would occasionally book a gig singing in the studio. I was making OK money, paying my bills on time. No complaints.
I accepted a job in a P!NK Tribute Band completely unaware that the man who hired me for the job (a bass player named Rik) had a VERY bad falling out with his former friend and bandmate (a personal injury lawyer/drummer named Chuck). Both men are in their 50’s. I had never met Chuck and knew very little about him. I started seeing on Facebook that Rik was starting to dis Chuck like they were in a junior high fight. I decided to get out of the band, but play one show and give them time to look for a singer. I dropped hints after every rehearsal that they should look for an understudy or replacement because I could be gone at a moments’s notice if I got a call to go on tour.
At the last rehearsal before the first show there was a girl who looked JUST like P!NK watching us. Relief! We didn’t know if she could sing or not, but her look was good enough for me! Suddenly a man came through the door and put a 112-page document in my hands. I had just gotten sued by Chuck!! At first I thought it was hilarious, but as I read through the complaint I was creeped out. There were 42 allegations against me and two other people. 13 against me. Chuck described being “appalled” and “hating my singing” when he saw me on Youtube. He stated that I would “sing flat for an entire verse” and that Rik had told him “I struggled for years unsuccessfully to get a record deal” (Rik had auditioned for my band edibleRed when we were signed to Select Records). He referred to me as a “co-hort” who conspired to steal the P!NK Tribute Band from him while he was getting shoulder surgery. There were serious allegations such as “Deceptive Trade Practices” and “Conspiracy for Fraud”.
The damages sought from me were about $10,000,000, “legal fees” (even though he was representing himself) and interest from October 2013. The lawsuit was SO absurd and a waste of space that I assumed a judge would look at it on the first day and throw it out.
WRONG.
A couple months into the legal system, I was completely locked in. I quit the band immediately to make it clear I had no affiliation with Rik other then being employed by him. It took me a minute to get my bearings. I happened to be working with a real estate lawyer on a separate deal, one that was going to earn me enough money to buy my first condo or house. I casually mentioned this stupid lawsuit to him and found out I couldn’t proceed until the ligation was over (or until I won the preliminary injunction). My lawyer called Chuck to get everything worked out. Chuck sent a very rude email to my lawyer stating that it was because of Rik that I found myself in the unenviable position of being in his crosshairs. He then suggested that a second lawsuit could come my way because of this. This is when my lawyer broke the news to me that I could be in litigation for years running up thousands of dollars in legal fees.
So at this point, this man has insulted me, made false statements about me, cost me thousands of dollars, admitted it was because of someone other then me that I was in this situation at all. Prior to this he had tracked down my address and sent a cease and desist that had mentioned possible jail time, seized assets and frozen bank accounts. At this point my legal fees were up to $3200.
Since there was no way out of this, I went to the press. I called The New York Post (who had written about me before) and sent them the lawsuit. I spoke off the record for about an hour, then on the record. My intent was to get a quick blurb in the back of the paper to get this man off my back.
Instead I was on page 3, there was a photo of me that looked altered and looked nothing like me in real life with the following headline.
Singer sued for being too old and ugly for Pink cover band
I was absolutely shocked.
“Oh well I’m sure I’ll get a couple phone calls/emails and it will blow over”
WRONG. IT WENT VIRAL WORLDWIDE. WORLD FUCKING WIDE.
Yahoo News, Perez Hilton, Time Magazine, Daily Mail UK, PINK Fan Clubs, even legal publications…
ALL TELLING THE WRONG STORY. The New York Pos made it sound like it was my terrible performance and bad looks that sparked the $10,000,000 and that I was so bad at the show Chuck had to take legal action. Because of this if you google BAD, UGLY SINGER I AM NOW ON THE FRONT PAGE OF GOOGLE. WTF?!!!!
I have never even met Chuck to this day. I will meet him for the first time on July 19th. Hopefully the last time. Making a living as a professional singer, I rely on my internet reputation to book jobs. So obviously, none of this is acceptable or OK.
But as far as the plot twist… I am now a lawsuit reform advocate working with The Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York and have a bill in my name dubbed “Collette’s Law” that seeks to deter this type of behavior by making the abuser pay the legal fees up to $25,000 of the victim. (We don’t already have that in place… isn’t that CRAZY?). My bill was introduced at Capital Hill in The Assembly a few weeks ago.
Yes, I am now in politics. Weird.
Read other answers by Collette Mclafferty on Quora:
- What's the bravest thing you have ever done?
- Which day was the best and the worst at the same time for you?
- What song do you find most relaxing/beautiful?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2eXzIgw
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