Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

“Landlord on hook for up to $44K even though bias case was dropped”

Dan Bader came to be “embroiled in a messy dispute with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Fair Housing Council of Orange County” when he used Craigslist to advertise a rental unit in his Newport Beach home as “Well suited for professional adults” and “Perfect for 1 or 2 professionals.” As the Orange County Register relates, it never resulted in an actual courtroom loss; the process was the punishment. Bader has a website on the experience: StateGoneCrazy.com (more on Craigslist and the wording of housing ads here, here, etc.).

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2 Comments

  • Get this, from the comments on the piece, by Bader:

    And, just for your information, I was renting the apt out to a couple who had 2 children under the age of 12 at the time the FHCOC tried to claim I wouldn’t rent to families with children. I had also rented to a single mom with a 1 yr old daughter. The State interviewed both of them just prior to concluding that I did not have a history or practice of discrimination.

  • What amazes me is that not only does the law empower these organizations to claim damages in their own right, and also shake down supposed violators for undoubltedly Orwellian re-education efforts, but the Feds are giving them money to help finance this clearly lucrative racket.