The other nanny suing Hollywood figures Rob and Sheryl Lowe “was going to settle with the Lowes but then she too wound up being represented by [attorney Gloria] Allred”. So Laura Boyce now finds herself at the center of big legal and publicity hoopla:
Boyce’s claims don’t target Rob Lowe at all but focus on Sheryl Lowe for such off-putting behavior as walking around naked — in her own home — and making “numerous sexually crude, lascivious and racially derogatory comments,” which led Boyce to quit her job. Sheryl Lowe has denied the allegations.
“The home is a workplace for the people who are working in it — the nannies, the chefs, the drivers,” says Allred. “Celebrity employers do not have special rights. They are not insulated from liability because they are in their home. Celebrities are not above the law. They don’t have license to commit sexual harassment because it’s in their home.”
Lowe has pre-emptively sued Boyce and the other Allred-represented nanny, Jessica Gibson. (Rachel Abramowitz, “Rob Lowe’s privacy, nanny woes”, Los Angeles Times, Jun. 4).
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Rob Lowe’s statement. Lowe is without recourse: California law permits lawyers to engage in such extortion, and the nanny is likely judgment-proof. No telling how many celebrities pay off similar claims to avoid being dragged through the mud. Wouldn’t it be nice if such celebrities used those experiences to campaign for tort reform?
Wouldn’t it be nice if Ted could support allowing Rob Lowe to sue Gloria Alred, despite his lack of privity?
All he has are clearly enumerated duties of the lawyer to the adverse third parties in the Rules of Conduct, in the Rules of Evidence, and in the Rules of Civil Procedure, making any valid claim a per se claim (based on violation of a law). Only a common law good old boys agreement prevents him from enforcing the law against the lawyer immunized from any accountability for the damage they do to others by their carelessness.