We previously discussed Judge Godbey’s $10,000 sanctions order against Mick Haig’s attorney for violating Judge Godbey’s order precluding the service of subpoenas on ISPs designed to obtain the identities of alleged copyright infringers (of copyrighted porn). Mick Haig’s attorney subsequently appealed Judge Godbey’s order to the Fifth Circuit.
The Fifth Circuit recently issued its decision (available here), upholding Judge Godbey’s sanctions order. Specifically, the Fifth Circuit held that Mick Haig’s attorney had “waived all arguments” he attempted to raise on appeal, given that he raised his arguments for the first time on appeal or for the first time in an untimely motion filed in the district court to stay the sanctions order pending appeal.
Mick Haig’s attorney argued that he was still entitled to make his arguments, but the Fifth Circuit disagreed:
Nonetheless, [Mick Haig’s attorney] asserted, at oral argument and for the first time, that this court can consider his arguments because his appeal is one of “extraordinary circumstances,” involving only “pure question[s] of law [in which] a miscarriage of justice would result from our failure to consider [them].” AG Acceptance Corp. v. Veigel, 564 F.3d 695, 700 (5th Cir. 2009). We conclude, however, that no miscarriage of justice will result from the sanctions imposed as a result of [the attorney’s] flagrant violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the district court’s orders. [He] committed those violations as an attempt to repeat his strategy of suing anonymous internet users for allegedly downloading pornography illegally, using the powers of the court to find their identity, then shaming or intimidating them into settling for thousands of dollars—a tactic that he has employed all across the state and that has been replicated by others across the country.