by Marty Hayes, J.D.
Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah and Happy New year to all our members. I am writing this on Christmas day, so the greeting seems especially appropriate.
We continue our “deliberate growth” plan adding new members each month and year. We find it just as fulfilling to see people renew, because it means we are meeting our members’ needs and expectations. It is especially fulfilling to see the low numbers of member incidents again this year. More on this in our year in review article.
YouTube Wars
Do you watch YouTube? For the past several months, I have been following the “self-defense insurance” wars, in which one company, Attorneys on Retainer (AOR), has been taking on other companies which rely upon an insurance company to supply the money to pay for legal coverage.
AOR has been doing reviews on the other companies’ plans and contracts with their members. While the AOR critiques of the plans are primarily opinion about what those contracts say and mean, the AOR folks always tell viewers to read the contracts for themselves. Now, it is becoming very interesting to watch as the other companies respond to what they feel are misrepresentations by AOR, and, in some cases, accusing AOR of lying outright.
Well, even though my law degree is now 15 years old, I remember pretty well the instruction on the law of defamation. You see, if someone is spreading outright lies and misrepresentations about another company, the legal recourse is a civil suit for defamation. I can assure you that if a competitor spread lies about the Network, we would be filing a lawsuit against them for defamation pretty quickly, even if the offender was a law firm, like AOR. I should quickly note that has not been a problem, and by the way, I have had many discussions with Marc Victor over the past year, and even stopped by his law firm last November when I was in Arizona (see photo). He is, of course, free to pick apart our program, too, as long as the review is done honestly. I do not expect a problem with AOR. One last thought about AOR: I really respect Victor for rolling around in the mud with the insurance-backed insurance companies. I would not have the energy to do it.
Back to this war on YouTube: it is like watching a train wreck. It is kind of fascinating in a morbid way. If lies are being told about a company, why haven’t those companies filed suit? Perhaps it is because discovery might just expose information the insurance-based companies really do not want exposed. So, how does one watch these trainwrecks? Go to YouTube, and simply type in the search bar “attorneys on retainer.” The result will be many, many videos. You will have to spend a little time to sort them out, but if you have time, watching them can be quite entertaining. If you do this, hang in there long enough to read the comments after the videos. You can play the video and read the comments at the same time, just scroll down the YouTube page.
You can also do the same for Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network and we would be very happy to have you watch our videos.
Speaking of YouTube
On Thursday, January 4 at 4 P.M. Pacific Time, we will be holding our first ever live stream, to be carried on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko35i0dn4WE . For my first venture into live streaming, I am asking if you could email us your questions to the email below. I expect more than one or two of you may ask the same or very similar questions so I would like to be able to group topics in advance so if there are several facets to one topic of concern, I can respond to the related questions together. Please note: I will not be addressing questions about specific state laws. Instead, I will cover general questions about self defense and the law that apply to all of the states. Hope to see you on Thursday afternoon or evening, depending on your time zone.
Email your questions to