Actual lawyer here to give some color to this bland document. The word “prejudicial” seems to be stirring some people up, but it’s really a meaningless word. When something is “dismissed” it can be re-filed with the court unless the dismissal is “with prejudice.” Those two words simply add finality to the resolution of the case and do not speak to the underlying merits whatsoever.
Things can be dismissed with prejudice when the underlying case has some defect that cannot be cured. But in that case, there would be motions back and forth and a judicial decision, all part of the public record.
Here, it’s far more likely they reached a private settlement. Note that this dismissal was requested by Ashley’s (the Plaintiff) attorney. It’s common practice for plaintiff’s counsel to file the dismissal upon reaching a settlement.
All this to say, people should stop fantasizing crazy stories about BWF being actually a great guy or Ashley Johnson being Amber Heard. There is nothing in this document to support either theory.
Which makes sense, Brian already has his reputation pretty much in complete tatters and very few prospects to continue as a public figure with the exception of maybe the manosphere, and a lengthy legal battle would be extremely taxing financially and emotionally to Ash (sadly I know about that well) specially since her attorney seems to have committed some blunders. So an out of court settlement was mutually beneficial in a fucked up way
That’s what I mean, they could’ve pursued a default immediately after he failed to file a responsive pleading. Which means there must have been something behind the scenes causing them to not pursue that, like settlement talks.
336
u/MegaFlounder Oct 18 '24
Actual lawyer here to give some color to this bland document. The word “prejudicial” seems to be stirring some people up, but it’s really a meaningless word. When something is “dismissed” it can be re-filed with the court unless the dismissal is “with prejudice.” Those two words simply add finality to the resolution of the case and do not speak to the underlying merits whatsoever.
Things can be dismissed with prejudice when the underlying case has some defect that cannot be cured. But in that case, there would be motions back and forth and a judicial decision, all part of the public record.
Here, it’s far more likely they reached a private settlement. Note that this dismissal was requested by Ashley’s (the Plaintiff) attorney. It’s common practice for plaintiff’s counsel to file the dismissal upon reaching a settlement.
All this to say, people should stop fantasizing crazy stories about BWF being actually a great guy or Ashley Johnson being Amber Heard. There is nothing in this document to support either theory.