Case Overview
Randazza Legal Group (RLG) defended a website that published truthful information about legal cases. Namely, a “mugshot site”.
The plaintiff, Casey Houtsinger, was arrested for drunk driving. The facts of her arrest and her mugshot were public records. As is common with publicly accessible arrest information, the defendants published her booking photo and related arrest details. Rather than accepting the consequences of a DUI arrest becoming public, Ms. Houtsinger filed suit, attempting to invoke ORS 133.875. That statute limits fees for the removal of booking photos. However, Houtsinger’s case relied on requests for removal that were sent before the law went into effect. The website stopped accepting money for removing photos once the law was enacted.
Houtsinger’s claim was not merely weak but legally impossible: the statute did not apply retroactively, the defendants were already charging a compliant rate by the time the law took effect, and nothing the defendants published was unlawful. Despite these realities—acknowledged in part through her own complaint—the plaintiff persisted in the litigation. Houtsinger made what the defense characterized as extortionate settlement demands, initially seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars while asserting that a jury verdict could exceed $1 million. Meanwhile, the plaintiff’s counsel continued pressing this theory even after being on notice of its flaws, extending litigation that RLG attorneys viewed as both frivolous and abusive.
The plaintiff’s claims targeted protected speech – namely the publication of truthful public records. Accordingly, the website was protected by the First Amendment and the Oregon Constitution’s free speech clause. This made the claim subject to the Oregon Anti-SLAPP law, and RLG’s experience with Anti-SLAPP litigation came into play. RLG was able to secure a quick dismissal under the Anti-SLAPP law.
As of the time of this posting, the matter remains pending with respect to the amount of fees and costs that Houtsinger will need to pay RLG’s client under the fee-shifting provisions of the Anti-SLAPP law.