The setting is the week before trial and the company has been ordered by the court to attend a final settlement conference. The company Kris Kringle Inc. is suing a former employee for taking the customer list and setting up a competing business for video games. Kris Kringle is also suing for deceptive trade practices and arguing that the defendant is getting business by confusing consumers and also posting disparaging comments about its video games.

You are attending as general counsel for the company with the president Kris Kringle. Up to now, the lawyer representing the company has told you what a great case the company has. That is very good news since the company has spent about $1 million in attorney fees and expects to spend almost half of that through trial. Based on the attorney's advice and your experience, you encouraged Kris Kringle to file and pursue the case.

The settlement conference begins with the defendant Grinch, president and owner of Chris Crinkle, telling the court that he is serving a trial subpoena for the Facebook posts of Kris Kringle, and also wants to know the login and password on Facebook for Kris Kringle. It seems that Kris Kringle was posting some highlights of the case on his Facebook page in order to reassure customers and investors that the lawsuit would be behind the company soon and legal counsel is confident that the company will prevail.

First, Kris Kringle said that its attorney hired a private investigator who found proof that the Grinch, a disgruntled former employee, took the customer lists. And, second, the attorney said not to worry that the customer list Kris Kringle worked so hard to compile is information that can be built up using Twitter lists and followers of other video game companies, and LinkedIn. This is when things went terribly wrong for Kris Kringle, Inc.