Ryan Hamilton’s plan to consolidate his lawsuits against Scientology rehabs is denied

We’re so used to Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton running roughshod over his opponents, this comes as a bit of a surprise. But Hamilton’s attempt to have his many lawsuits in several states against Scientology’s drug rehab network Narconon consolidated into a single federal court in Nevada was rejected on Friday.

Consolidating the cases would have simplified things for Hamilton — with so many cases (27 filed in total), they’re generating many motions which are very similar to each other.

But the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation found that the cases, while similar, had enough differences to argue against consolidating them into one court.

These actions are primarily fraud actions and will involve significant case-specific facts, such as the specific representations regarding the Narconon Program made to each plaintiff, the conditions at the different facilities attended by the plaintiffs at different times, and the widely varying injuries allegedly suffered by plaintiffs.

Well, yes, it’s true that different Narconon victims suffered different harm. Some of Hamilton’s plaintiffs are alleging simply that they were ripped off when they signed up for drug counseling and got Scientology training instead. Others allege actual physical harm as a result of Narconon’s unscientific ‘detox’ programs. And others say they were physically or sexually attacked.

But in every single case, Narconon uses the exact same Scientology booklets for its training routines. It uses the same come-ons, with false claims that it has a sky-high success rate and that it’s “secular” and not related to Scientology. And every single Narconon answers to the same Scientology umbrella groups, governed by the same internal documents, which Hamilton has submitted in each of the lawsuits.

But OK, that similarity wasn’t enough for the judicial panel. Hamilton’s the one who filed 27 lawsuits, so he’ll have to deal with the hassle of juggling them all, and making sure he can get to courts in several different states on time.

Meanwhile, other attorneys are watching. We told you that an attorney in Michigan filed two lawsuits within a week recently that appeared to be modeled on Hamilton’s suits. We’ve learned about a California attorney who quietly filed about a dozen lawsuits in state court there, and we’ll be bringing you more about him and his suits soon. And many of you noticed that an attorney in Bloomington, Minnesota suddenly started advertising that he’s looking for plaintiffs to sue Narconon, and he’s even advertising on television nationally…

 

 
We’ve put in a call to James Rolshouse, and we hope we get a chance to talk to him soon about his slick ad and how soon he thinks he’ll file his first lawsuit.

Narconon won this round against Hamilton, but things really aren’t looking much better for Scientology’s rehabs.

 
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Sunday Funnies

Hey, let’s get back to our weekly feature and have some fun with Scientology’s latest fundraising fliers, sent to us by our great tipsters.

 
Yes, Scientology has figured out how to turn Valentine’s Day into another opportunity for prying cash out of its members. Don’t forget your tux, suckers!

 

 
Hey, for those who didn’t want to spend $80,000 for a Members Only jacket, here’s something new — the “Promise to Ron” recognition club in Miami, limited to only 40 people! Show how much you love Ron, give us cash!

 

 
“The object is a cleared planet…the only way to do that at a rapid enough rate and in volume is to go Ideal.” Yeah, those Ideal Orgs are really ropin’ ’em in, aren’t they!

 

 
They really do think we’re all going to be scrambling on our smartphones to get the stuff they’ll be pumping out of the old KCET studios, don’t they? And in order to “commemorate” all that new dissemination, how about dropping five thou on a new E-meter!

 

 
Perhaps one of our Kiwi readers could tell us how Helen is a legend. (We know, we know, it’s the size of the last check she wrote.)

 

 
Uh-oh. “Mission Holders Conference” and David Miscavige? That’s had some bad connotations in the past. Anyone know how things went down on Friday night?

 

 
We don’t know why, but this made us laugh out loud. Maybe it’s knowing what the Sea Org slaves are forced to survive on just a block away or something.

 

 
Isn’t ‘New Civilization Builder’ in the million-dollar range? New Zealand will be cleared in no time!

 

 
“Fully hatted” has always been one of our favorite Scientology phrases.

 

 
Finally, Leona paid $800 and got a T-shirt! And now she’s off to infinity, or something.

 

 
Thanks again to our great tipsters!

 
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Bonus photos from our tipsters

A Latvian organization that calls itself “Happy Kalve” is using Scientology’s The Way To Happiness booklets in anti-drug presentations in local schools.

 

 
Actual caption from The Way to Happiness Foundation India’s Facebook page after the pamphlet was used (for some reason) at the Delhi Traffic Police Headquarters… “It is very good to know about Traffic Rules and regulations and “The Way to Happiness” is very helpful. Like to know about the moral values, Ethics and what promises we do with our family and society and our duties towards the society.”

 

 
No, this isn’t creepy at all.

 

 
The Scientology quotient at tonight’s Grammy Awards is likely to be high! Or at least very weird. Wacky Joy Villa and genius Willow Smith were snapped yesterday at a pre-Grammy bash…

 

 
Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 8, 2015 at 07:00

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