Nevada civil litigation lawyers consider harassment suits: when is it a violation of celebrities’ ri
Celebrities worldwide are engaged in lawsuits across the globe almost endlessly, whether over intellectual property rights for their performances or productions, or because they’ve gotten into trouble with law enforcement, or were injured, etc. But one article in the San Jose Mercury News brings to the public’s attention how even infant children of celebrities can follow in their parents’ litigious footsteps, and win thousands of dollars in court. Nevada civil litigation lawyers see it happen in California all the time, where movie stars are more apt to get slap-happy with the suits, and Adele’s one year old son Angelo Adkins has done just that when he filed a “privacy case against a photo agency that published photos of the lad’s ‘milestone moments,’ according to multiple reports.”
The case resulted in a five-figure dollar amount win for the toddler, whose mother is famous for being a powerhouse singer and songwriter not yet out of her mid-twenties. The British star Adele and her partner Simon Konecki sued Corbis Images U.K. Limited “after it made available to British tabloids photos of their baby,” reflecting their desire to avoid their son becoming “public property.” But even as this suit was settled in British courts, Californians consider their right to privacy essential, as Nevada civil litigation lawyers have noticed. The right to privacy isn’t strictly delineated by the Constitution, but several Supreme Court Cases indicate that it’s worth legal protection.
Unless the snoopers are National Security Agents, it’s a generally accepted idea that as individuals we should get to choose what about our lives enters the public domain. This idea may, however, be something that celebrities have to let go of to an extent, as print and online journalist speculate about their lives in detail, grabbing onto whatever evidence—phone calls, photographs—that enables us to peek inside their glamorous daily activities. Angelo Adkins was supposed to have that privacy, for example, as Adele and her partner expressly asked for paparazzi to stay out of their baby boy’s milestone moments.
When they didn’t, the harassment suit was filed. Nevada civil litigation lawyers like Ian McMenemyreference California’s increasingly strict harassment laws under which starlets and their children can file. Adele’s suit against Corbis Images U.K. Limited was successful enough to get an agreement from the photo dealer “to pay damages and legal costs to Angelo and [a promise not to] use the pictures again.” A pretty successful outcome, given that individuals right to privacy isn’t guaranteed in the strictest sense of the concept.
Although McMenemy and other Nevada civil litigation lawyers don’t see quite as many suits as Los Angeles with all its movie stars does, Las Vegas has its fair share of harassment lawsuits, local attorneys say. Top performers, artists, and chefs in Las Vegas are often exposed to the sort of journalism that borders on rights to privacy, or rather, to be free from harassment.
Sure, it’s probably a good thing little Angelo won’t be exploited for the greedy public hunger for celebrity news and photographs, at least not by Corbis Images U.K. Limited, but the issue of rights to privacy isn’t likely to be clearly defined anytime soon.