The number of lawyers that fits that description is a short list. There are definitely billing machines masquerading as adult lawyers who seem to be on every trade show panel and usually charge you thousands to say the sky is falling.
When I was in private practice I doubt I ever charged more than $500 for an initial consult. You need to shop around and you need to get real legal advice.
A lot of amateur board legal advice is just plain wrong from "experienced" webmasters.
Chad Belville, Esq
Phoenix, Arizona
www.chadknowslaw.com
Keeping you out of trouble is easier than getting you out of trouble!
There's an old saying, "the person who represents himself has a fool for a client"
I look at legal advice like insurance... by paying for good advice, I'm likely to avoid future legal hassles and liabilities that might otherwise cost me hundreds of times the value of that insurance.
Of course, you're free to follow the advice you get from people in the industry, but each situation is different, and a prudent business person would probably see the value of that investment (which should be relatively small if you find the right attorney) as worthwhile in the overall planning of a new business.
BTW, $3500 for a couple hours of advice, if that's really all you got, is a travesty. There are plenty of knowledgeable First Amendment/adult industry attorneys that bill at $250-300/hour and should be happy to do short consults with you at those hourly rates.
Thanks, yeah I felt like I got taken to the cleaners. I was so pissed at the end of it.
At the end of the consultation he basically said to get out of adult and go sell on eBay if I wanted to continue making money online.
It seems from the hints Im getting here is that the problem is with people making fake profiles.
I checked this out
http://dating.about.com/b/2008/04/09...ting-sites.htm
And the judge agreed with Adult Friend Finder in all but one of the judgements.
So that's good.
I mean, if I had so many members that someone was making fake profiles I think I'd be happy. I bet 30% of the profiles on the sites I visit now are fake. So Im not going to worry about it.
And it looks like no one else here works with dating sites so cant chat about experiences with it.
mrmax, I'm with you. I see no problem with asking legal type questions on boards like this. A lot of people do it and I think thats one of the benefits that forums can provide. As you said, other people have already gone to the expense of hiring a lawyer so if they're willing to share what they learned, I think thats great.
Yes, it makes sense to get a lawyer once you take the plunge and start the site, but during the fact-finding phase using boards like this is a great idea.
Thats what I say.Originally Posted by sc32803
I have a mainstream site and I was on a mainstream webmaster board talking about how to do contest giveaways to my members on the site.
I was bombarded with "Get a lawyer!" and told how dumb I am to ask on a board and not talk a lawyer.
I rolled my eyes and said fine, and I called my state's atty general and consumer protection office to ask them and they were like yeah whatever, do your contests as long as youre not charging for them or doing gambling. No problem.
The consumer protection office said that the internet doesnt fall under state regulations. There are no hard drawn lines for what I was doing on the web.
The FTC handles spam, but Im not spamming.
Saved myself $500 right there,.
the judge did agree - but you can bet that aff spent BIG bucks on attorneys to get that far.
i've dealt with a number of adult attorneys and talked to more. i've never talked to one who charged more than $500 per hour. are you sure the attorney you talked to wasn't charging you for research?
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