Editing Cult Awareness Network (section)

=== Landmark Education ===
According to the (Old) Cult Awareness Network's executive director, [[Landmark Education]] and the [[Church of Scientology]] were the two groups for which CAN received the highest number of inquiries from concerned relatives – twenty-five per month per group.<ref name="jackson">{{cite news | last = Jackson | first = Steve | title = It Happens. When it comes to Landmark Education Corporation, There's no meeting of the Minds. | work = Westword | date = April 24, 1996 | url = https://www.westword.com/news/it-happens-5056220 | access-date = 2023-09-12}}</ref> In an interview, CAN's executive director emphasized that the label "[[cult]]" with regard to Landmark Education was not important; but rather greater scrutiny of its practices was needed.<ref name="jackson" /> Specifically, CAN stressed concerning characteristics, such as "the long hours during which the participant is in the organization's total control, receiving input from only one source, removed from any support system except for the seminar group itself".<ref name="jackson" /> In 1994, Landmark Education Corporation sued the Cult Awareness Network for 40 million [[United States dollar|USD]], claiming that CAN had labeled Landmark Education as a cult.<ref name="matthews">{{cite book | last = Matthews | first = William Joseph |author2=John H. Edgette |author3=Milton H. Erickson Foundation | title = Current Thinking and Research in Brief Therapy: Solutions, Strategies, Narratives | publisher = Psychology Press | year = 1997 | page = 53 | isbn = 978-0-87630-819-6}}</ref> The case itself involved a dispute over the legality and applicable usage of what William Joseph Matthews termed "cult indoctrination procedures".<ref name="matthews" /> CAN later settled and made a statement that it did not consider Landmark Education a cult, as part of the settlement agreement.<ref>{{cite news | last = Hukill | first = Tracy | title = The est of Friends | work = Metroactive | publisher = Metro Publishing Inc. | date = July 1998 | url = http://www.metroactive.com/landmark/landmark1-9827.html | access-date = 2007-10-28 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090123235400/http://metroactive.com/landmark/landmark1-9827.html | archive-date = 2009-01-23 }}</ref>

During the litigation proceedings between Landmark Education and the Cult Awareness Network, Landmark Education spent months attempting to compel legal [[journalist]] [[Steven Pressman]] to respond to deposition questions aimed at obtaining the [[Journalism sourcing|confidential sources]] he used for research on his book about [[Werner Erhard]], ''[[Outrageous Betrayal]]''.<ref name="skolnik">{{cite news | last = Skolnik | first = Peter L. |author2=Michael A. Norwick | title = Introduction to the Landmark Education litigation archive | work = Lowenstein Sandler PC | publisher = The Rick A. Ross Institute | date = February 2006 | url = https://culteducation.com/group/1020-landmark-education/12390-introduction-to-the-landmark-education-litigation-archive.html | access-date = 2023-09-12}}</ref> Though the deposition questions were brought under the pretext of compelling discovery for use in Landmark Education's lawsuit against CAN, Pressman concluded that the deposition questioning was mainly a form of harassment.<ref name="skolnik" /> The discovery commissioner who entered an interim order in the matter, commented that "it does not appear that the information sought [from Mr. Pressman] is directly relevant or goes to the heart of the [CAN] action, or that alternative sources have been exhausted or are inadequate".{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} The action against Pressman was dropped after the Cult Awareness Network litigation was settled.<ref name="skolnik" />  As a result of the Cult Awareness Network settlement with Landmark Education, CAN agreed to cease selling copies of ''Outrageous Betrayal'' for at least five years. From the resolution of CAN's board of directors: "In the interests of settling a dispute and in deference to Landmark's preference, however, CAN now agrees not to sell the Pressman Book for at least five years after CAN emerges from bankruptcy".<ref>{{cite news | last = Svoboda | first = William | title = Certified Resolution of the Board of Directors of the Cult Awareness Network, Inc. A California Not-for-Profit Corporation | work = Cult Awareness Network | date = 1997-11-03 | url = http://www.xs4all.nl/~anco/mental/randr/canresolution.html }}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> CAN's executive director maintained that the purpose of Landmark Education's lawsuits was not to recover lost funds, but to "gag critics".<ref name="jackson" /> Along with Scientology, Landmark Education was granted access to Cult Awareness Network's files, which contained phone records and data on individuals who had previously sought information on these groups.<ref>Beebe, Jim., "Court gives Landmark Education Corp. (LEC) access to Cult Awareness Network (CAN) files". March 1999.</ref><ref name="1997bankruptcy">{{cite news | last = [[United States Bankruptcy Court]] | title = U.S. Bankruptcy Court Opinions – In Re Cult Awareness Network, Inc., (N.D. Ill. 1997) | pages = Bankruptcy No. 95 B 22133 | date = 1997-03-14 }}</ref>