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Dragonlance Lawsuit Dismissed Without Prejudice
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<blockquote data-quote="Abstruse" data-source="post: 8152708" data-attributes="member: 6669048"><p>Quick explanation of what's going on. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I just read and study a lot of lawsuits like this one.</p><p></p><p>The only thing we know for sure is that Margaret Wies and Tracy Hickman both decided to withdraw their lawsuit but reserve the right to file it again in the future. Wizards of the Coast filed no documents in this case with the court, and no discovery took place on either side (meaning nobody entered any evidence into the court).</p><p></p><p>That is the beginning and end of what we know and anything beyond that is speculation. Including everything else I'm about to write.</p><p></p><p>This sort of filing for dismissal without prejudice typically happens in two cases. The first (and based on the reactions from both Weis and Hickman on social media, most likely in this situation) is when a settlement has been reached. The plaintiff withdraws their lawsuit without prejudice in order to protect the settlement agreement. If either side violates the terms of the settlement, they can take it back to court if necessary. The second is when the plaintiff believes they're unlikely to win the court case (or get the settlement they want) and seeks to withdraw in order to either avoid paying legal fees for a losing battle or to re-file the lawsuit at a later date when they have a stronger case.</p><p></p><p>If it is a settlement (which again, we don't know for sure but is the most likely situation), odds are we won't know what that settlement is. Typically, settlements are sealed and both sides are bound by an NDA to not discuss the terms of the settlement. So we might see some of the results of the settlement - for example, if Wizards of the Coast approves publication of the new Dragonlance books, we'll see announcements of those books' releases - but we won't know what the exact terms of that settlement were - if Weis and Hickman agreed to the more extensive changes WotC apparently wanted from the books based on the original legal filing or not, if they agreed to different a different editor at WotC, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Abstruse, post: 8152708, member: 6669048"] Quick explanation of what's going on. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I just read and study a lot of lawsuits like this one. The only thing we know for sure is that Margaret Wies and Tracy Hickman both decided to withdraw their lawsuit but reserve the right to file it again in the future. Wizards of the Coast filed no documents in this case with the court, and no discovery took place on either side (meaning nobody entered any evidence into the court). That is the beginning and end of what we know and anything beyond that is speculation. Including everything else I'm about to write. This sort of filing for dismissal without prejudice typically happens in two cases. The first (and based on the reactions from both Weis and Hickman on social media, most likely in this situation) is when a settlement has been reached. The plaintiff withdraws their lawsuit without prejudice in order to protect the settlement agreement. If either side violates the terms of the settlement, they can take it back to court if necessary. The second is when the plaintiff believes they're unlikely to win the court case (or get the settlement they want) and seeks to withdraw in order to either avoid paying legal fees for a losing battle or to re-file the lawsuit at a later date when they have a stronger case. If it is a settlement (which again, we don't know for sure but is the most likely situation), odds are we won't know what that settlement is. Typically, settlements are sealed and both sides are bound by an NDA to not discuss the terms of the settlement. So we might see some of the results of the settlement - for example, if Wizards of the Coast approves publication of the new Dragonlance books, we'll see announcements of those books' releases - but we won't know what the exact terms of that settlement were - if Weis and Hickman agreed to the more extensive changes WotC apparently wanted from the books based on the original legal filing or not, if they agreed to different a different editor at WotC, etc. [/QUOTE]
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