Amanda Bronstad is a reporter for The National Law Journal, an American Lawyer affiliate.

Correction, 3/21/13, 8:32 a.m. EDT: This article has been reflect to reflect the fact that attorney Morgan Pietz denies that he runs the two websites in question.

A federal judge in Los Angeles, raising concerns about a "legal shakedown," has ordered four attorneys and a paralegal to show up at a hearing next month to explain why they shouldn’t be sanctioned for fraudulently filing dozens of actions against unnamed individuals accused of downloading copyrighted pornography videos.

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright on February 7 had issued an order to show cause why Brett Gibbs, a Mill Valley, Calif., of counsel to Prenda Law Inc. who filed the actions now pending before him, shouldn’t be sanctioned for having disobeyed a discovery order and for possibly stealing the identity of someone to validate a potentially sham client.

Following a March 11 hearing, Wright expanded his order to include possible sanctions against others associated with Prenda Law, including attorneys John Steele, Paul Hansmeier and Paul Duffy, and paralegal Angela Van Den Hemel.

"The evidence presented suggests these persons may be culpable for the sanctionable conduct…which the Court previously attributed to Brett Gibbs only," Wright wrote in a March 14 order. "Further, it appears that these persons, and their related entities, may have defrauded the Court through their acts and representations in these cases."

He ordered the attorneys to appear at an April 2 hearing.

An attorney for Gibbs, Andrew Waxler of Waxler Carney Brodsky in El Segundo, Calif., declined to comment. In court documents, Gibbs has said he is "very sorry that the Court is concerned with his conduct. Mr. Gibbs has strived to be honest and forthright with this Court, and all courts during his legal career."

Heather Rosing, a partner and head of the professional liability department at Klinedinst in San Diego, who represents Steele, Hansmeier, Duffy and Van Den Hemel, did not return a call for comment.

The allegations behind the sanctions order first surfaced when Morgan Pietz, an attorney in Manhattan Beach, Calif., who represented a "John Doe" defendant in one of the cases, accused Gibbs of masterminding a "widespread fraud" on the courts.

In court documents, he noted that Gibbs had filed more than 40 lawsuits in the past year in federal court in Los Angeles on behalf of shell companies called Ingenuity 13 LLC and AF Holdings LLC.

In particular, Pietz accused Gibbs of stealing the identity of a Minnesota man named Alan Cooper to sign documents as a principal for Ingeniuty, which claims to own the copyrights to A Peek Behind the Scenes at the Show and Five Fan Favorites.

Pietz claims the real Cooper is a caretaker for some property for Steele and has testified in court documents that he knows nothing about Ingenuity.

"Prenda Law, which still represents both AF Holdings and Ingenuity 13, has so far refused to clarify whether there really is another Alan Cooper who is the true principal of these entities," wrote Pietz.

The alleged fraud goes beyond the cases in Los Angeles, he wrote. He cites rulings by judges in other cases filed in California and Florida by AF Holdings or Ingenuity 13 that have questioned the legitimacy of the companies.

"The conduct of Prenda and its ‘of counsel’ Mr. Gibbs in these cases undermines the integrity of the courts and the public’s confidence in the justice system," Pietz wrote. "Here, Prenda has shown that it is willing to do just about anything to obtain grist for its national ‘settlement’ mill. Repeatedly, in hundreds of actions filed in courts across the country, Prenda has resorted to misrepresentations, halftruths, and questionable tactics, if not outright fraud, forgery, and identity theft."

Gibbs, in response, has accused Pietz, who operates two Web sites, fightcopyrighttrolls.com and dietrolldie.com, of attacking him for publicity purposes.

"Specifically, Mr. Pietz believes that his sloppy attempts to defame and overburden Prenda Law will gain him coverage—and, subsequently, clients—from the two primary niche blogs which vehemently oppose Prenda’s efforts to protect its clients’ copyrights," he wrote in court papers.

Calling Pietz’s claims "baseless and unsubstantiated," Gibbs sought sanctions against his opponent, which were denied on December 21.