Headlines screeched his early life as a criminal; he became mired in libel litigation that embittered him while it increased his sales.
While lawyering, even in litigation that goes to trial, consists in large part of carefully reasoned argumentation, the result is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational.
While the reported profits suggest a significant decline, 2007/08 included the release of a provision against potential litigation that was no longer required.
"People in business now never had a dress code when they were growing up, and schools got so fearful of litigation for a while that nobody wanted to be the one to say, 'You can't come to my class looking like that,"' said Maureen Sanders, president of High Road Solutions in Martinsville.
Lawyers who follow drilling-related litigation said that while the Dryden ruling applied only to New York, it was among the first in the nation to uphold a local drilling ban.
Richard A. Nagareda, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School who specializes in mass personal-injury litigation, said that while other district court judges had reserved the right to review settlement agreements in similar mass tort cases, that authority had not been tested yet on appeal.
Ray Clifford, who was representing himself in the litigation, said that while he hadn't heard from coalition lawyers in weeks, he was unaware the case had gone away until Forbes contacted him.
While Al knows now that Westboro learned he was homosexual during the litigation, that information was never made known to the jury.
Litigation challenging that decision is pending.
A spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice told the BBC: "A court order has been served in a civil case involving private litigation". She added that while it was not uncommon for the US marshals to be involved in such action, she could not recall another case happening at a trade show.
