Confidential Settlement Obtained in Match.com Rape Case
A Chicago woman who was raped by a man she met on dating site Match.com --- two years after another woman had warned Match.com that the same man had raped her – has settled her lawsuit against the social networking company.
According to the victim’s attorney, Daniel S. Kirschner, a partner at Corboy & Demetrio, “This was an egregious case of corporate irresponsibility, and unfortunately not an isolated one.” Kirschner added, “For over two years, Match.com had actual knowledge that it had an alleged rapist as a member of its matchmaking service, and it did nothing to remove him from its site, which would have prevented him from meeting and raping Jane Doe.”
“Match.com did everything it could during the course of this five-year litigation to derail Jane Doe’s claim and avoid taking responsibility for the tremendous harm it caused her,” Kirschner said.
“Match.com moved repeatedly and unsuccessfully to dismiss this rape victim’s lawsuit, delved relentlessly into her most personal emails, and even filed an affirmative defense blaming her for being raped,” Kirschner explained.
Kirschner added, “Jane Doe is very satisfied that justice has now been served with respect to Match.com. She hopes that her courage in pursuing this groundbreaking lawsuit will give other dating service rape victims the will and resolve to come forward and assert their rights.”
The lawsuit is captioned Jane Doe v. Match.com, LLC, a limited liability company, et al., Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, docket No. 13 L 4197. On April 28, 2016, Judge Moira Johnson entered an order dismissing Match.com pursuant to the above settlement. The lawsuit remains pending against the perpetrator. The settlement was reached through mediation with the assistance of both Judge Stuart Nudelman (ret.) and Judge William Haddad (ret.) of ADR Services.
