Lance Armstrong Slapped with Lawsuit
BANFIELD: This one comes from a "you've probably seen it coming" file. A week after Lance Armstrong bares his soul to Oprah Winfrey, he's getting hit with a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit says, Armstrong's book, great reading about battling back from cancer to become the world's best cyclist, was based on lies and deception, and now people want their money back if they bought the book and believed it. It's not about the bikes. It's about the dope. Joey Jackson joins me to talk about the chances of getting your $29.95 punitive damages.</s>JOEY JACKSON, ATTORNEY: Money is money, right?</s>BANFIELD: Money is money. A lot of people who were so inspired. Oprah even said so in this interview. He saved lives with some of his words. Could you really have suffered so many damages? He may have saved your life but you're not really depressed?</s>JACKSON: Here's what happens. When somebody peddles a book and say it's an autobiography, it about him and it's inspirational and they want the world to know how they overcame adversity, right? As a result of that, people should be able to rely on the representations in the book. If you pedal it as an actual story about your life, about your history and overcoming all odds, readers have a right to rely upon that. And if it's really fiction and not fact, pay up.</s>BANFIELD: Can you be entitled to spend damages, punitive or --</s>JACKSON: You know what happened, in law, as we look at law, we look to precedent. That's what happened previously. You might remember James Frey, James Frey before.</s>BANFIELD: A million little pieces.</s>JACKSON: A million little Pieces.</s>BANFIELD: A million little pieces of you know what.</s>JACKSON: Right.</s>BANFIELD: Oprah was in on that.</s>JACKSON: Oprah was in on that one, too. Ultimately he had to come clean. He talked about his addiction and overcame it. And when it was found that it was all false, the publishers set aside a pot of money and people who wanted a refund got the money back. Very few came forward. They spent like $30,000 in refund and had a pot of millions so they gave the rest to charity and, of course, legal fees.</s>BANFIELD: It's more about the principle than getting your $29.95 back. One last question. The fact that this thing was pedaled on Amazon, that's communication. That's using wires. Is there a wire fraud of any kind here? Lance Armstrong asked to you buy something over the international and national wires, so you're paying for a lie.</s>JACKSON: I think this is more civil in nature. I don't think we can see it civilized. Yes, he made misrepresentations but it didn't amount to a crime. I don't think the Justice Department will be looking at this. I think a lot of other people will to get their money back.</s>BANFIELD: I'll be curious to see how many people jump on board the class action suit and how much it actually costs and the publisher, by the way.</s>JACKSON: Oh, yes, publishers are involved, too. Of course.</s>BANFIELD: Not just Lance. A couple of people are going to have to pay up. Joey, don't go anywhere.</s>JACKSON: I'm here.</s>BANFIELD: Because there's this case that we found, very disturbing, very troubling, and also really fascinating. A woman convicted of drowning her own child. Murder. Sure. You would think, right? Maybe not so much. She's just been released. She was only in prison for three years? We're going to find out why, and you might be really upset about it.