Insomniac Lawsuit Dismissed on Technicality, Policy Changed (For Now), Open Offer for Help

For those following my lawsuit against music festival producer and Live Nation subsidiary Insomniac, filed last year against their policy banning all OTC medicine and requiring a “consultation” to bring in prescriptions, some updates…

First, the lawsuit was tossed by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez because, he says, I didn’t provide evidence that I asked Insomniac to change their policy before suing, which he reads as a prerequisite to a federal ADA suit.  There were also state discrimination law claims, but the law allows a federal judge to decline to hear a state claim after the related federal claim is dismissed, so he tossed that too.  No ruling was made on the true merits of the case: whether the medicine policy was legal.

I think Judge G misread the law regarding notice, and he certainly misread my filings alleging that I *did* give notice.  As I wrote about before, this judge is famous among federal judges for seeking ways to get cases out of his courtroom.  I could appeal, or I could re-file the state law claims in state court, but I won’t (in favor of a better plan… keep reading!) for 2 reasons:

1. Insomniac ran up a fucking massive legal bill.  If the appeal failed, the attorneys have some likelihood of asking me to pay at least a part of that — plus whatever additional amounts they spend defending the appeal.  Insomniac agreed to pay their own bill in exchange for not appealing or re-filing.
2. Insomniac removed the offending medicine policy from their Web site… for now.  This may be a sign that they are changing their ways, which would be mission accomplished.  But, even if it’s not, it makes it harder to sue them because they are no longer advertising discrimination.

So here’s the new, better plan: an open call for anyone who is ever refused entry over medicine or has their medicine thrown out at the gates of EDC to contact me.  If I think you have a good case, I will find and fund an attorney to fight the case, and offer my assistance to your attorney as his paralegal without cost to you.  If Insomniac did indeed decide to fix their policy, then this won’t be necessary, and if they didn’t, I’ll be able to get a second fight against it, with the benefit of the knowledge I gained the first time, with a different judge, without the “you didn’t give them notice” issue, and without the attorney’s fees and costs from this case able to be threatened.