The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are T & J Towing of Kalamazoo Michigan and its President Joseph Bird. They get the award for the following-

A Facebook group targeting a Kalamazoo towing company has cost the business numerous contracts, according its attorney.

The Facebook group started by a Western Michigan University student, meanwhile, has eclipsed the 10,000 mark in members.

“Kalamazoo Residents against T & J Towing,” created in February by 21-year-old WMU student Justin Kurtz, has generated “adverse publicity” that has resulted in T & J Towing losing “somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15” contracts, said Richard K. Burnham, who earlier this month filed a $750,000 lawsuit against Kurtz on behalf of T & J Towing President Joseph Bird.

“He lost two more (accounts) over the weekend,” said Burnham, who declined to name those former T & J Towing clients.

Burnham said the value of lost business is “substantial,” but couldn’t provide a dollar figure.

Kurtz, an aviation student from Yorkville, N.Y., claims his Saturn SL2 was legally parked and that his complex-issued parking sticker was displayed when his car was towed in January from The Arboretum apartment complex. Kurtz says on his Facebook group that he believes his car was broken into and his parking sticker removed so that the car could be towed.

Similar allegations are made in numerous posts to the Facebook group by people who say they were legally parked when they were towed by T & J, including some claims that parking stickers had been removed.

This award is self explanatory. Mr. Bird is trying to muzzle Kurtz with a lawsuit. This is covered under freedom of speech and if Bird and his lawyer were worried about bad publicity, wait till this story gets picked up by wire services and bloggers. More damage will be done to T & J Towing and its owner and it will be all self inflicted.

And I'll do my part by naming T & J Towing of Kalamazoo Michigan and its President Joseph Bird today's Knuckleheads of the Day.

Hat tip- Overlawyered