Don’t watermark your legal PDFs with purple dragons in suits

There's a time and there's a place. Federal court is neither.

Being a model citizen and a person of taste, you probably don't need this reminder, but some others do: Federal judges do not like it when lawyers electronically watermark every page of their legal PDFs with a gigantic image—purchased for $20 online—of a purple dragon wearing a suit and tie. Not even if your firm's name is "Dragon Lawyers."

Federal Magistrate Judge Ray Kent of the Western District of Michigan was unamused by a recent complaint (PDF) that prominently featured the aubergine wyrm.

"Each page of plaintiff’s complaint appears on an e-filing which is dominated by a large multi-colored cartoon dragon dressed in a suit," he wrote on April 28 (PDF). "Use of this dragon cartoon logo is not only distracting, it is juvenile and impertinent. The Court is not a cartoon."

Kent then ordered "that plaintiff shall not file any other documents with the cartoon dragon or other inappropriate content."

The unusual order generated coverage across the legal blogging community, which was apparently ensorcelled by a spell requiring headline writers to use dragon-related puns, including:

• Judge Slays Dragon-Branded Lawyer’s Marketing Effort
• Magistrate judge is breathing fire over law firm's dragon logo on legal pleadings
• Exit the Dragon
• US judge gives fiery response to e-filing “dominated by large cartoon dragon dressed in a suit”

Jacob A. Perrone is the lawyer behind Dragon Lawyers (phone number: [area code redacted] JAKELAW). His website, which also features the purple dragon and a bunch of busted links in the footer, says that the firm "integrates AI to lower the cost of legal services."

The New York Times got in touch with Perrone this week, who explained that he liked Game of Thrones, that he bought the dragon image online, and that he selected it because "people like dragons." He plans to keep using the logo but will tone it down in future filings.

The whole story would be far more humorous were it not from a case in which Perrone represented a woman who claims that she nearly died after being incarcerated and not given proper medical care. Perrone must now refile his complaint in that case—without the cartoon dragon.

Source

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