Normani & Sam Smith can't recover $700K legal bill after beating copyright lawsuit

[Teletubby 134,490]

Normani and Sam Smith beat a copyright lawsuit over their 2019 hit “Dancing With a Stranger”  but a federal judge is refusing to force their accuser to reimburse their legal fees — a bill the stars say was $732,202 in fees.

Sam Smith and Normani have argued that they shouldn’t be forced to foot the huge bill they incurred fending off the “frivolous and unreasonable” lawsuit, which claimed the duo had copied a little-known 2015 song of the same name when they created “Dancing.”

While U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu dismissed the lawsuit last year, he ruled this week that the case was not so completely baseless as to warrant punishing the accuser with paying the stars’ massive legal bill.  He called Smith and Normani’s arguments “generic reasoning” that would lead to many such awards in future copyright lawsuits. 

Judge Hsu did rule that Smith and Normani could recover their legal “costs”, calculated at $10,173, from the plaintiffs.

source

[Versace 7,860]

Huh shouldn’t their labels be liable for this? 

[Railing 2,296]

is that why Sam wants to rebrand and Normani's returning to Fifth Harmony 

[Madame Goo Goo 3,690]

I’m not super shocked neither of them have $700,000 laying around to pay it but I also am at the same time. I wonder how much any given famous person ACTUALLY has available to them in their accounts, vs their net worths.

[stvn 575]

14 minutes ago, Madame Goo Goo said:

I’m not super shocked neither of them have $700,000 laying around to pay it but I also am at the same time. I wonder how much any given famous person ACTUALLY has available to them in their accounts, vs their net worths.

Trying to get the loser to pay attorney costs is the norm for anyone. Just because they are doing that doesn't mean they are both broke or don't have the money. It's that they shouldn't HAVE to pay. And even if you had the money, wouldn't you want to get out of it if you could? Anyone would. Doesn't mean they don't have the cash. 

That said, it's quite obvious Sam Smith has a far far more substantial net worth. I'm not sure what Normani is working with, but I also won't make any assumptions. 

[Lanadelduck 1,921]

Federal court follows the “American rule” unless a specific statue sued under authorizes recovering attorneys fees. 
 

Google the American rule 

[ActualPatient 1,234]

1 hour ago, Railing said:

is that why Sam wants to rebrand and Normani's returning to Fifth Harmony 

misread: sam smith is joining fifth harmony :((