Free advice for eHarmony

Perhaps you’ve read about the California man — a lawyer, it’s worth noting — who is suing the online dating service eHarmony because the matchmaker refused to make him a match based solely on the fact that the man/lawyer was married at the time. Nitpickers. John Claussen’s divorce from his wife was pending at the time eHarmony refused to help him jump back into the dating game.

One account of the story made clear that while Claussen considered the “no marrieds” rule discriminatory, he was particularly peeved by having spent two full hours filling out a personal profile before eHarmony’s Web site got around to telling him that married people need not apply.

So I’ve got a solution that will save everyone the trouble and expense of a lawsuit next time around. The dating service should simply rewrite its questionnaire. Here’s the very first item on the new one:

“Are you a lawyer?”

If the answer is “yes”?

“Sorry, lawyers are not allowed to use our service.”

Arbitrary, true, but to the best of my knowledge not against the law.