Blogger.com Libel/Slander/Defamation Question

[toBE]

Hello,

I run a website and someone put up a blog on a blogger hosted site that blatantly slanders/defames, falsely accuses me, my website as well as a few other companies.

Blogger/blogspot/owned by Google says they cannot do anything without a court order.

Not only are they defaming a public entity (my website) they're saying that I am a convicted felon!!! And they make this bogus claim that I'm running a phishing scam with my forum website? I think the site may be some crazy person who is running a penny auction, that I have brought up for discussion/question (if you read my site you'll see why this person probably did this, I do not think nor do I ever want to defame anyone I only started the website to let users of penny/bid-fee (pay per bid) auctions to come together and share their experiences because there really is a gray area surrounding this new type of online shopping and there are some sites that have admitted to scamming with shill bidders, so I can see where my site is a threat to them (if they are a scam penny auction site-I'm not going to falsely accuse them because I don't know but I found a link to the site with the defamation from a post re: another site from a commentator counter reacting a question I posed to hear from real customer testimonials, saying the negative feedback is driven by my site and then posted a link to the defaming blog, this was only a few days after the defaming blog was even created).

I commented and they removed my comment!

I have NEVER been convicted of any crime yet they say I just got out of jail!?

What action do you suggest I take, ignore it and hope it goes away or talk to a lawyer?

Thanks & Best Regards

[quincy]

What state in the U.S. do you reside in? There are often significant differences between the defamation laws in each state.

You may want to show your website and the blog site to an attorney in your area for a review and an opinion.

The attorney can, first of all, let you know if the blog is in fact defamatory and then, if it is, the attorney can give you an estimate of the costs involved in pursuing an internet defamation action against this blogger.

There are definitely challenges with internet suits, and these challenges (getting a court order issued to an out-of-state webhost to have content removed, identifying an anonymous blogger, handling out-of-state service, fighting jurisdictional battles. . . ) can ratchet up the cost of a defamation suit substantially - and defamation suits are not exactly known for being cheap to begin with.

Whether to sue or not really depends on how severely your reputation has been injured, how solid of a defamation case you have based on the facts, and how much money you are willing to invest in pursuing legal action against your defamer, in hopes of being compensated for this injury.

Good luck.