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Federal Judge Orders Lawyer to Remove Dragon Watermark from Court Filings

(Friday May 02, 2025 @11:20AM (msmash) from the how-not-to-train-your-dragon dept.)


A Michigan federal magistrate judge has banned a lawyer [1]from using a cartoon dragon watermark on legal filings, [2]calling the practice "juvenile and impertinent." Judge Ray Kent of the Western District of Michigan issued the order on April 28 after receiving a complaint featuring a purple, suit-wearing dragon on every page.

"Each page of plaintiff's complaint appears on an e-filing which is dominated by a large multi-colored cartoon dragon dressed in a suit," Kent wrote. "The Court is not a cartoon." The watermark belongs to Jacob A. Perrone of Dragon Lawyers, who told The New York Times he purchased the image online for $20 because "people like dragons."

Perrone said it plans to continue using the logo in his practice but will tone it down in future court submissions.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/dont-watermark-your-legal-pdfs-with-purple-dragons-in-suits/

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/us/dragon-lawyer-lawsuit.html



Slow news day I guess (Score:2)

by AlanObject ( 3603453 )

Judge reprimands lawyer for acting like a 13 year old dork in court.

Judge is right. Dork is wrong, being a dork.

Did I miss anything?

Re: (Score:2)

by blackomegax ( 807080 )

Yes you did. Dorks are always right. Judges are often wrong.

Re: (Score:2)

by whitroth ( 9367 )

Judges are often wrong? Really? Citation needed.

Re: (Score:3)

by Rinnon ( 1474161 )

> Because?

Because dragons, obviously. Nerds like dragons.

Re: (Score:2)

by Zocalo ( 252965 )

Dragons like nerds too.

Flambéd. With ketchup.

Re: (Score:3)

by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

> Because?

Clickbait.

Re: (Score:2)

by Waffle Iron ( 339739 )

> Because?

More apropos to this site:

If I were the judge, I'd ban all those legal documents where they use a dozen unmatched closing parentheses as a box border on the front page.

To anyone who has ever written a computer program, it just screams out "syntax error".

A Perfect Example (Score:2)

by guygo ( 894298 )

Mr. Perrone is a perfect example of the Arrested Development Generation:

"Oooo... this'll be AWESOME! Dragons, man. Yeah. that'll show 'em all how tough I am! Who cares if it hurts my client... it makes me look GREAT!"

Always a good idea to piss off the judge before he's even read one word of your adolescent plea.

I guess it helps the clerk: "Dragon watermark? Circular file..."

It's not even a good dragon. (Score:2)

by devslash0 ( 4203435 )

"Because people like dragons". No, no one's going to like this one. It looks like a Marvel mafia enforcer dressed in a suit, not a cute little Spyro everyone would love. Kids these days...

He's an AI lawyer, too. (Score:3)

by devslash0 ( 4203435 )

"Jacob A. Perrone is the lawyer behind Dragon Lawyers (phone number: [area code redacted] JAKELAW). His website, which also features the purple dragon and a bunch of busted links in the footer, says that the firm "integrates AI to lower the cost of legal services."

I think it would be fair to say that someone should review is legal bar homeworks and retrospectively check for plagiarisms.

Stolen from under the article (Score:5, Funny)

by devslash0 ( 4203435 )

"I don't know what the big deal is. Lady Justice also has scales."

Meanwhile (Score:2)

by xack ( 5304745 )

The Linux community uses childish anime characters all over their source code.

Just put it on your folder. (Score:2)

by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

Just put the dragon on your folder, man. Or your Trapper Keeper. Do they still make Trapper Keepers? Maybe have it stitched into the leather on your briefcase. But don't put it on documents. WTF? Anybody that made it through legal school should know you don't cartoon up legal documents. Come on, man. Your making the rest of us dorks look bad because you're so terrible at being a dork.

tone it down? (Score:2)

by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

> Perrone said it plans to continue using the logo in his practice but will tone it down in future court submissions.

The judge banned the logo, so I'm pretty sure that means off.

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