LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit scheduled an oral argument back in September in Doe v. SexSearch after Doe was defeated in the U.S. District Court last August and filed for appeal.
Oral argument was held on Oct. 24 in Cincinnati, Ohio and Lead Counsel for SexSearch, Gary Jay Kaufman of The Kaufman Law Group, argued the case before a three judge panel.
"The panel was very receptive to our arguments regarding the lack of any guarantee that all persons on the site are 18 plus," Kaufman said in a statement. "Only one person in the world had the responsibility to verify that girl's age and it was John Doe. I expect the panel to agree."
Kaufman remains confident that the Sixth Circuit Panel will affirm the District Court's dismissal of Doe's lawsuit upon hearing both sides.
"John Doe argued that the content of Jane Roe's profile is not the issue, rather it's the fact that a minor was on SexSearch at all was a breach of the parties' contract," Colin Hardacre, also of The Kaufman Law Group, told AVN Online. "But that's just not the case. Mr. Kaufman made clear during his time before the Court that the real reason John Doe brought this suit was because he got caught. If he hadn't been arrested for having sex with this child, this case would never have been filed. Any argument to the contrary is absolutely disingenuous and the panel responded very favorably to that point."
The original lawsuit, filed in August 2007, accused SexSeach and other adult online companies of failing to verify the ages of their members.
SexSearch's Appellee brief urges the court to deny Doe's appeal and affirm Ohio District Court Judge Jack Zouhary's dismissal of John Doe's meritless lawsuit.
