• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Blackmail?

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

H

homehealth

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maine

I want to publish a list of public court documents. Some people won't want their information published. Because of the volume of the information I won't have time to discriminate what is published. Do people have the right to demand I take the information down? This leads me to the second part of my question: Some of these people will have legitimate reasons why they don't want their information published, and I want to be fair, so I have thought of fielding requests to remove the information. There will be a great number of requests so I would have to hire more than one person to review the requests, so is it illegal to charge a fee for the processing of the request?

In summation:

If I publish public records online and someone requests that I remove their records, do I have the right to refuse and leave the information there?

May I charge a "processing" fee for these requests?
 


S

sandyclaus

Senior Member
homehealth said:
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maine

I want to publish a list of public court documents. Some people won't want their information published. Because of the volume of the information I won't have time to discriminate what is published. Do people have the right to demand I take the information down? This leads me to the second part of my question: Some of these people will have legitimate reasons why they don't want their information published, and I want to be fair, so I have thought of fielding requests to remove the information. There will be a great number of requests so I would have to hire more than one person to review the requests, so is it illegal to charge a fee for the processing of the request?

In summation:

If I publish public records online and someone requests that I remove their records, do I have the right to refuse and leave the information there?

May I charge a "processing" fee for these requests?
Click to expand...
So, in other words, you want to do what a whole lot of other companies are doing, by compiling a searchable online list of personal information obtained by pulling public records.

Of course, there are always going to be people who demand to have that info removed, but TBH, it's all PUBLIC information (as long as you obtained it through public records). Even if you remove it from YOUR listings, it will end up somewhere else that someone can search for it anyway.

I'm not quite sure of the legalities or logistics of your plan, but I'm sure someone will come up with an answer to that.
 
H

homehealth

Junior Member
Well, I will actually be doing kind of the opposite of what a lot of other companies do. I will be paying for this information (as it will be coming from PACER) and then providing it to the public for no cost. So making money is not my intent, I will actually be losing money. I want to give people people the option to request the information be removed. I also want to reserve the right to refuse to remove the information. Logistically I will not be able to handle all of the inquiries, and the only way I can think of dealing with it would be to contract out that work and charge a fee. So back to my original 2 part question:

If someone requests the information to be removed do I have to comply?

Is there any legal issue with charging a fee to process that request?0
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top