Famous People Can Be Personally Injured

As Los Angeles personal injury attorneys the presence of celebrities looming heavily in the daily legal news is pretty inevitable. While we don't represent a lot of extremely well known people, the cases they get involved with -- and don't get involved with -- can lead to some pretty interesting discussion. Just today, there are two cases in the news that we can't help thinking about.

The first involves Sylvester Stallone. In the midst of a recent comeback for the 66 year-old movie star, it was revealed that, decades ago, the actor and screenwriter had agreed to give his half-sister $2 million, along with a monthly stipend of $16,666.66, as well as yearly $50,000.00 contribution to a fund for psychiatric and medical expenses. Though there were abuse allegations, we don't know if any personal injury lawyer was involved on the side of the sister, who passed away from lung cancer earlier this year. The case is being widely described as, essentially, Stallone paying off blackmail to his allegedly drug-addicted late half-sister.

The second is the wave of "swattings" -- in which pranksters who have somehow obtained celebrity's addresses call 911 and report false emergencies. The most recent incident happened at the home of Chris Brown on Monday night.

As personal injury attorneys in Los Angeles, we have to wonder if there aren't more ways for celebrities to fight back, if they wish to. We suppose their publicists are warning them to wrap up cases quickly to avoid too much negative attention, but we think it's possible they at least in theory could counter these attacks with strong civil action. Certainly the pranksters in the "swatting" cases are guilty of the worst kind of harassment, a type of personal injury -- though we also understand that, first, they have to be caught. As for celebrities in Stallone's predicament, we imagine that either harassment or perhaps defamation charges could perhaps discourage a would-be blackmailer, perhaps even one in your own immediate family. Both cases make us just a little glad that we're not quite as famous as Mr. Stallone or Mr. Brown.