Lawsuit Abuse a Growing, Costly Problem

Collette McLafferty holding a copy of the New York Post newspaper at the Yellow Brick Collective in New York on Aug. 25, 2014. Courtesy of Collette McLafferty

NEW YORK—Collette McLafferty was rehearsing at a studio in Long Island one night in 2014. A P!nk cover band had hired her to sing lead for a one-night gig at a pub.

A man walked into the studio holding a stack of papers. He approached the bassist, Richard Nevine, and took some papers from the stack to hand to him. The man was a process server there to tell Nevine he was being sued by a former bandmate for allegedly stealing his idea to start Long Island’s first P!nk cover band.