Photo courtesy Milo, Inc.
In a $10 million lawsuit against his former publisher, Simon & Schuster, New York Times bestselling author MILO announced Monday he was parting ways with his attorneys and will represent himself in court.
The lawsuit, filed in July 2017, seeks damages from the publisher after it broke contract with the controversial, right-wing provocateur following pressure from media and authors. MILO went on to publish his book, DANGEROUS, through an imprint he founded. It has gone on to sell nearly 200,000 copies according to the publisher, Dangerous Books.
In October, MILO scored a victory in court after a New York state judge shot down a motion from Simon & Schuster to dismiss the case.
In a statement about the lawsuit, and his decision to represent himself, MILO said:
The lawyers at Meister Seelig & Fein were excellent litigators on my behalf. The source of the disagreement between me and them arises from Simon & Schuster’s discovery tactics. We asked that all pertinent documents be open to the public record. But Simon & Schuster demanded that virtually all of the documents in this lawsuit remain confidential, and had them classified “attorney’s eyes only,” meaning that I am not even allowed to see what has been said about me and my book in my own lawsuit. In other words, S&S has persuaded the court to withhold from me the documents I need to read in order to properly assess my own case. Therefore, I will now be representing myself pro se, so I can directly see the material, and I look forward to revealing Simon & Schuster’s perfidy in court.