Hurricane season is just around the corner which means it is time for lawyers to start planning their pro bono efforts to help others who will be affected buying up hurricane-related domain names to help bring in hurricane insurance claims lawsuits.
The Star-Ledger reports that although there are still a few months before hurricane season begins in June, the list of 2013 storm names is already a hot topic as "Internet speculators are registering domain names for future hurricanes, anticipating heavy traffic and potential profits if one makes history like Sandy." The first hurricane name that will be used by the National Hurricane Center is Andrea, and HurricaneAndrea.com has, predictably, already been snagged, along with many others and even some "sets."
The Star-Ledger notes that serious seekers of storm-related domains can actually purchase a "full set" of domain names for the 21 named storms on the 2013 National Hurricane Center list on eBay for $999. Bargain! That's right, with just one click you can own all of the following names and, as the eBay ad encourages, begin to "profit off of large storms" as the owner of:
- HurricaneAndrea2013.com
- HurricaneBarry2013.com
- HurricanChantal2013.com
- HurricaneDorian2013.com
- HurricaneErin2013.com
- HurricaneFernand2013.com
- HurricaneGabrielle2013.com
- HurricaneHumberto2013.com
- HurricaneIngrid2013.com
- HurricaneJerry2013.com
- HurricaneKaren2013.com
- HurricaneLorenzo2013.com
- HurricaneMelissa2013.com
- HurricaneNestor2013.com
- HurricaneOlga2013.com
- HurricanePablo2013.com
- HurricaneRebekah2013.com
- HurricaneSebastien2013.com
- HurricaneTanya2013.com
- HurricaneVan2013.com
- HurricaneWendy2013.com
How can lawyers profit off of the next Hurricane Sandy? Well just look at Sandy itself, which resulted in more than 300 Sandy-related domain names being registered on the day the storm hit land. Andrew Allemann, editor at DomainNameWire.com, told The Star-Ledger that "a Sandy domain name increases traffic. That’s valuable to lawyers for claims lawsuits, insurance companies, people offering recovery services."
Legal Blog Watch is posted by Bruce Carton and published by Law.com
