The paparazzi are a group of photojournalists who specialize in photographing celebrities during candid and unwanted moments. The paparazzi are generally freelance photographers who sell their images to magazines, gossip websites, and television studios. The paparazzi have had a significant amount of negative press against them because of incidental reports where they violate the celebrity’s civil rights to privacy as well as some situations of assault.

To prevent the photographers from continuing to follow them around, many celebrities have sued and pressed charges against the paparazzi. In some extreme cases, the celebrities and their bodyguards have used violence to sway the paparazzi from continuing to photograph them.

In recent years, members of the paparazzi have used the legal system to get back at the celebrities who have either assaulted them or damaged their reputation. In September 2009, a member of the paparazzi sued Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen over an incident in which their bodyguard assaulted the paparazzi member after he took unwanted photos of the couple. Allegedly, the bodyguard fired shots at the photographer and demanded that the camera and memory card be destroyed.

In 2007 Denise Richards and Pamela Anderson were sued for assaulting members of the paparazzi. The paparazzi claimed that the women went into a violent rage after the paparazzi took unwanted photos of the two women. The paparazzi member claimed he was physically and verbally assaulted by Richards and Anderson for over 20 minutes. The women also reportedly destroyed the man’s camera and laptop computer.

In 2008, actor Keanu Reeves was sued for allegedly hitting a member of the paparazzi with his car. The victim claimed that he was unable to due to injury and he asked for a settlement of $700,000 to compensate for his injuries and lost income. The case was thrown out after the photographer was filmed working and using his injured hand.