Can I be sued for Slander...?

[smo378]

I live in California. There is a person in Virginia threatening to sue me for slander. He started a forum and asked me to be the co-founder. He was the founder. He treated me like crap and I told him I wanted no part of his site. We've never met and this was an online only thing, by which we e-mailed each other information.

Now the thing he says is slander:

He banned me from his forum after a petty argument. I posted a video blog saying how I felt used and how he mislead me when he wanted me to join his site. In fact, he tricked me to upload free advertisements on youtube, to drive up his notoriety. In my video, I said I took the advertisements down. I never mentioned him by name, in fact, I said I wanted to keep his confidentiality. I even referred people to his forum, in spite of me being angry. I said, "I am not saying his forum isn't legit, you may want to still join..I am just saying I don't like how this founder is controlling and basically used me for publicity, which I caught on to." I said, "...the way he treated me was Bogus, not his site." This was word for word what I said. He knew I was a Youtube partner and took advantage of my own effort to build up a channel after a lot of sweet talking a false information.

That being said and done, this guy says I slandered him. He claims to have already talked to a lawyer and he thinks there is a good case against me for slander. I NEVER told people not to go to this site. I just said my opinion.

I know nothing about the law..as you can tell, but has society really come to the fact that someone's free opinion (although biased for my beliefs) is now slander? Does anyone think that this guy has a good case? The only thing that was said was what I posted above. I even provided his link if people wanted to still join.

Can anyone help?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[swalsh411]

Of course you can be sued but based on what you described he has no case. If he actually did go to an attorney he would need a lot of money up-front and will probably just forget the whole thing. Dollars to donuts he's a pathetic basement dweller who likes to play Internet Tough Guy. (there I slandered him to)

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I agree that he does not have a good case.

One of the most difficult pieces of a slander case is proving damages. If you called him a dirt-bad, he would have to prove in court that someone actually believed that he was a dirt-bag, and that because someone thought he was a dirt-bag, he lost money somehow (lost income, etc)

Also, truth is an affirmative defense to slander. So if you can prove that he really is a dirt-bag, he has no case.

I would simply tell him that I can no longer discuss the matter with him since he has involved an attorney, and that I will wait to hear from the attorney.

 

[quincy]

I agree with both swalsh and Steve that this fellow will probably not sue - the costs are too high to make this a worthwhile action for him to pursue, based on what you have posted here.

I did want to add, however, that expressing "opinions" about someone or some entity (especially online where the audience can number in the thousands) can be legally dangerous if you are not careful about how you express these opinions. Identifying someone by name is not necessary for a defamation action if what you say about this person sufficiently identifies him to others (ie. "the person who runs suchandsuch a forum" is sufficient identification) and any opinion that states or implies false and defamatory facts can support a claim against you, regardless of couching your statements with "In my opinion" or "I think."

No speech is "free" speech if what is said is false and it injures the reputation of another. The First Amendment does not protect such speech.

All of that said, I suggest as the others have that you do not communicate with this person anymore, you refrain from posting any additional material online about this person without a careful review of its content prior to posting, and you do not worry about any of this until you receive a complaint notifying you that you are being sued. If you do receive notification that a suit has been initiated against you, hire an attorney.