For four years I did a conference where I invited business owners to tell us what they right in their business. We picked the top 12 stories and these successful business owners were given an opportunity to tell their story to up to 300 conference attendees.

While promoting the last conference, I sent faxed invitations to business owners who I thought would enjoy the positive press and would be interested in promoting their company to 300 people.

Several asked that I remove them from the list and I did so.

Four of them engaged a lawyer and filed a law suit.

Apparently there is a law that says you cannot fax someone unless you have written permission. This puzzled me especially since the names and fax numbers came from a public list I acquired from Reference USA.

The law states you cannot sell a product or service via fax without written permission (there is more but that is the highlight).

Since the fax I sent invited the business owner to a networking event where we could talk with them about their story and the role the conference would play in helping them grow their business, we were not in violation of the law.

The Cleveland based lawyer filed the lawsuit for a Cleveland based heating and air conditioning company. Apparently this lawyer files lawsuits when people receive an unwanted fax. As I talked with people about this lawsuit, I learned I was not the only one he has extorted money from. His reputation is less than stellar.

I am sure this lawsuit was not the intent of the fax law and our law makers really should fix this law to prevent this abuse.

According to my lawyer, the lawsuit is “legalized extortion” but his suggested was to settle the suit because of the cost of going to court and the difficulty in counter-suing.

It cost a lot of money and time to run this conference to promote good news in NEO. It cost a lot of money in legal fees to settle this law suit.

It is hard to plead “not guilty” when I clearly broke the law – even though I did not know the law existed. Sometimes we try to do something positive and it backfires. The backfire is what I call the law of unintended consequences.

There are two lessons to be learned: 1. Continue trying to do good but have a good lawyer. If you need a good lawyer let me know (email only please), I have more experience than I care to admit and I would be willing to share the names of the people who helped me. Asking a question to your lawyer before is always easier that dealing with a suit after the fact. 2. It doesn’t say much about our business owners if they cannot pick up the phone and ask to be taken of the list. To file a stupid and frivolous lawsuit to raise money is the ultimate in stupidity. The business owners who filed suit should be taken to the woodshed. It took a while to get my PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) back but I did. The essence of the second lesson is to trust your lawyer and stop worrying. Worrying does no good. All the sleep I lost did not change the outcome of the suit. Not counting legal fees the total settlement was for $750.

I will not reveal this company in this post and I suspect he has more problems that receiving a fax he does not want. He apparently has little regard for his business or his business reputation to get involved in this nonsense. The other four who had their name on this lawsuit did not do their business a favor.

I was bummed for a while about this law suit. I am over it now but I am saddened that our business community has to waste time, energy and money over something this stupid.

Check out the long term consequences with a group of trusted advisors. After all, many minds and many experiences are far more effective in the decision making process than any single mind or experience.

After a successful consulting career, Ron Finklestein has spent the past 6 years building his business AKRIS LLC and helping entrepreneurs and business owners build their businesses by helping them solve the tough problems that hold them back. Ron is called The Small Business Success Expert by his clients because of his passion for their success and his knowledge of business.

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