Joliet Genius Sues Over Wall Street Journal Ad

"I have a Robowatch report, 2012, that's when robots are invading your hospital, and Robowatch 2014, I call for debate. Two major questions. Barack Obama: A President of the robots? Robots? A destroyer, a human job destroyer? My answer to both of those is yes." - Dr. Dale Layman, YouTube interview filmed in 2015 while Barack Obama was President.

JOLIET, IL - Dr. Dale Layman, a scholar from Joliet who is founder and president of Robowatch, now finds himself embroiled in a lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse. He's suing a New Jersey company called Marquis Who's Who Ventures. Layman maintains he was recently defrauded out of $15,000 in an advertisement feature about himself in The Wall Street Journal.

On April 12, Layman got "a cold call" from two people who work for Marquis. "The call was unsolicited and made to Dr. Layman's landline telephone. At that time, Marquis' employees offered to Dr. Layman the opportunity to have a quarter-page article featuring his achievements and current work published in the World News Section of The Wall Street Journal," his Will County lawsuit notes.

The advertising reps had the Joliet man's ear. They told him "such features typically cost $100,000 but Marquis would produce and run the feature for Dr. Layman at the special price of $15,000," his lawsuit states.

Dr. Layman presumed the ad would receive nationwide distribution in The Wall Street Journal so he gave them two separate credit cards so they could charge him $15,000.

Four days later, on April 16, Dr. Layman was notified by the editor in chief of Marquis Who's Who, Fred Marks, that "we are exceptionally proud to announce that you have been selected for a quarter-page feature in the nation's most respected newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. With the largest U.S. subscriber base, The Wall Street Journal is the most widely circulated newspaper with an estimated 1.2 million printed copies daily," his lawsuit contends.

By April 25, Layman realized he was now out $15,000 and the ad was not to his satisfaction.

"After the feature was finalized and after Dr. Layman paid in full for the purportedly nationwide-distributed feature, Marquis informed Dr. Layman that the feature would only be published in a regional distribution of the Wall Street Journal despite Marquis' representation that it would be published in the national distribution," court papers show.

Dr. Layman tried to cancel the feature advertisement and "demanded a full refund of the $15,000 he paid to Marquis. Additionally, Dr. Layman disputed the charges relating to this transaction on his credit cards.

"On Friday, May 11, 2018 at the end of the business day, Marquis informed Dr. Layman that the feature would be appearing in the Central region distribution of The Wall Street Journal on the following Monday, May 14, 2018 despite Dr. Layman's cancellation of the ad and despite Marquis' statement that the matter had been resolved," court documents reflect.

Now, a Will County judge and jury is being asked to decide whether the New Jersey company violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

Marquis is accused of "misrepresentation" and making a "false promise. Dr. Layman would not have accepted Marquis' offer and paid $15,000 to have the feature produced had he been informed at the time of the transaction that the feature would only be included in a regional distribution of The Wall Street Journal," notes the plaintiff's attorneys Broida and Nichele, a Naperville law firm on Diehl Road.

From Dr. Dale Layman's 2015 interview posted on YouTube which you can watch in its entirety below: "Obama No! Obama No! Obama President of Robots. Obama is President of robots! No!!! No!!!!"

Images of Dr. Dale Layman of Joliet via YouTube