 |
||||||||
|
Free Speech Wha? 10/11/2006 09:21:00 PM | Jared Alessandroni From Slashdot and the shoot first state, a woman sues a former client for defamation after the latter posted negative comments about her on field-appropriate message boards. The field? The plaintiff ran a service that dealt with private schools for troubled kids - the defendent, "who had to leave her home for several months because of Hurricane Katrina, couldn't afford an attorney and didn't show up for the trial" had enlisted her services to get her sons out of a school her ex-husband had put them in. Unsatisfied, the defendent posted messages warning other parents in a similar situation away from the plaintiff. Ironically, the plaintiff had been a defendant in a similar case. What's appalling about the case is not that the woman pursued the case even when the defendent couldn't show up with counsel. The defendent, who couldn't even afford counsel (probably blowing all her money on frivilous things, like reparing her storm-damaged house). It's not even so awful that the plaintiff knew and admitted that she was just making a point, knowing that the plaintiff couldn't even afford transport to the trial. What's appalling is that the plaintiff didn't specify damages - the jury awarded her 11 million dollars without prodding. Of course, beyond all that, the world knows that calling a business person who you think wronged you "crook," "con-artist" and "fraud" online could cost you $11,300,000. Which reminds me, SAAB, your cars suck, and your service is a fraud.  perma link |
| 0 comments
0 Comments: |
Dartmouth The Free Press Alums for Social Change The Green Magazine The Dartmouth Dartmouth Observer Dartmouth Review Dartlog Inner Office The Little Green Blog Welton Chang's Blog Vox in Sox MN Publius (Matthew Martin) Netblitz Dartmouth Official News Other Blogs Ampersand Atrios Arts & Letters Altercation Body and Soul Blog For America Brad DeLong Brad Plumer CalPundit Campus Nonsense Clarksphere Crooked Timber Cursor Daily Kos Dean Nation Dan Drezner The Front Line Instapundit Interesting Times Is That Legal? Talking Points Memo Lady-Likely Lawrence Lessig Lean Left Left2Right Legal Theory Matthew Yglesias Ms. Musings MWO Nathan Newman New Republic's &c. Not Geniuses Ornicus Oxblog Pandagon Political State Report Political Theory Daily Review Queer Day Roger Ailes SCOTUS blog Talk Left TAPPED Tacitus This Modern World Tough Democrat Untelevised Volokh Conspiracy Washington Note X. & Overboard Magazines, Newspapers and Journals Boston Globe Ideas Boston Review Chronicle of Higher Education Common Dreams Dissent In These Times Mother Jones New York Review of Books New York Times Salon Slate The American Prospect The Nation The New Republic The Progressive Tikkun Tom Paine Village Voice Washington Monthly Capitol Hill Media ABC's The Note American Journalism Review Columbia Journalism Review CQ Daily Howler Donkey Rising The Hill Medianews National Journal NJ Hotline NJ Wake-up call NJ Early Bird NJ Weekly Political Wire Roll Call Spinsanity Search Search the DFP  |
|||||||
The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Dartmouth College or the Dartmouth Free Press.