May 14 2008

Legal Aggression

Legal Aggression

I will write more posts on this topic later in the year after a ridiculous lawsuit we’re in the middle of now winds up, but today’s news from Techdirt is that shoe retailer DSW is suing Zappos, who as regular readers know is one of my favorite companies and shopping experiences around.

The lawsuit sounds silly to me, but I’m not in the middle of the details of it.  But what absolutely amazes me is that DSW made no effort to contact Zappos prior to launching the lawsuit with a press release.  How incredibly irresponsible and rude and wasteful.  I hate it when lawyers run amok, or when overly aggressive business people think that a lawsuit is the most productive way of settling a dispute.  That may be true in the end, but for goodness sake, do your homework first and try to have a conversation with the other side, and everyone, try to be reasonable.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Twitter about this says it all.

Thanks to my colleague Lori for the heads up on this one.