WSN-US of A News-'Defamation suit by Indian can continue'

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‘Defamation suit by Indian can continue’
WSN Newtwork

NEW YORK: An Indian American lawyer, who claimed he was defamed by an episode of TV hit series “Law & Order,” can continue pressing his $15 million lawsuit against the show’s producers, a judge has ruled in New York.

In a decision made public on March 20, State Supreme Court Judge Marilyn Shafer rejected series creator Dick Wolf ’s bid to get the lawsuit dismissed. The judge said viewers might indeed conflate the real attorney, Ravi Batra, with an unsavory lawyer character with a similar name in a November 2003 episode concerning judicial corruption.

Batra applauded the ruling, saying the longrunning crime drama known for its rippedfrom-the-headlines stories had “recklessly undermined public confidence in the rule of law and the noble judiciary.”

Pam Golum, a spokeswoman for Wolf’s company, Wolf Films, declined to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for NBC Universal, which airs the show and is also named as a defendant, said the network was confident that evidence would ultimately disprove Batra’s claim.

“No character in the ‘Law & Order’ episode at issue depicts Ravi Batra,” spokesman, Curt King, was quoted as saying in newsreports.

In the episode, “Floater,” an attorney named “Ravi Patel” bribes a judge. Like Batra, the character is Indian American and sports a baldhead and facial hair.

The episode aired around the same time former NY state Assemblyman Clarence Norman-- Batra’s former law firm associate –was indicted on charges of pressuring judges to hire favored consultants.Norman was found guilty last year of grand larceny in a plot to shake down a judicial candidate and is serving a two-to-six year prison term.

Batra was not charged with any crime.

Wolf ’s lawyers have described any similarities between Batra and the Patel character as “abstract.” The attorneys have noted such differences as the fact that the real-life lawyer is based in Manhattan, while the character works in Brooklyn. But the judge said viewers wouldn’t necessarily know about the discrepancies in the details. She said there was “a reasonable likelihood that the ordinary viewer, unacquainted with Batra personally, could understand Patel’s corruption to be the truth about Batra.”