A story on TechDirt caught my imagination, about a P2P law firm who were sending out extortion letters after a judge had dismissed the defendants. It seems that you have to get pretty low to be less ethical than lawyers in some rackets these days. It seems that nothing stands in the way as a deterrent for them. I have a suggestion.
Since their business model is about mass mailing extortion "pay up or else" threats, knowing that a significant number will pay out the $5000 or whatever the settlement fee is, than go to court with the intentionally inflated "$100,000's" in fines and costs, why not fine them $5000 for EVERY letter they've sent illegally in addition to refunding everyone who's paid up double?
In this case the list is 110,000 long, with 40,000 apparently dismissed already. 110,000 x $5000 = $550,000,000. You could perhaps double the fine for each of the 40,000 who have been dismissed as a teaching aid, count those at $10,000 each. Since it's a gross breach of ethics, they could also be struck off from practising law in that country too.
That sort of punishment would make them think twice would it not? While the rewards are worth it, and any potential blowback is just a cost of doing business, they will continue to screw people over and ignore whatever laws get in their way.
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