Blog Slander and Defamation

[Razzbo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California.

Hello, I apologize if I am in the wrong category. I just registered, and having a difficult time with navigation. It took me at least ten minutes to find the forums.

Now to my question.

Someone on an Internet blog has slandered me and mutilated photos of me, for his own selfish satirical purposes. I need to know how we report blog crimes, and who we report them to. I tried in an amicable way to work with the slanderer, but he is of bad will and cannot be reasoned with.

I am only interested in the law, not personal and subjective opinions. Thanks.

 

[Razzbo]

As a side note, I don't think I have ever seen a website with so many advertisements. They are literally covering my screen and blocking out important legal information on this site.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California.

Hello, I apologize if I am in the wrong category. I just registered, and having a difficult time with navigation. It took me at least ten minutes to find the forums.

Now to my question.

Someone on an Internet blog has slandered me and mutilated photos of me, for his own selfish satirical purposes. I need to know how we report blog crimes, and who we report them to. I tried in an amicable way to work with the slanderer, but he is of bad will and cannot be reasoned with.

I am only interested in the law, not personal and subjective opinions. Thanks.

Satire actually confers to the author a great deal of protection, though it's not absolute.

Obviously we cannot possibly answer the question of what is and isn't "allowable" in any given blog. If you are concerned, you of course can contact the host site and request that they remove the offending blog but don't be surprised if it stays put. Even if it does end up deleted, it will remain online somewhere.

Read about Jerry Falwell's fun lawsuit against Hustler if you want to see an example of how satire can work as a defense.

You're welcome.

(Before the question is asked, a defamation suit is not going to be viable here unless a) it's a slamdunk case, b) the defendant has a LOT of money and c) there's actually a good chance of collecting the award. Also take note that attorneys will not take defamation suits pro bono as a rule, and they can run into the tens of thousands of dollars to litigate, and they can take several years during which virtually every aspect of your personal life will be paraded in front of the public)

 

[CdwJava]

Slander (or, in this case, libel) is a for of online defamation and is a civil tort, not a crime. You can consult some attorneys and ask how much it might cost you to try and sue the person involved and how much you might be able to win if you prevail. Be prepared to present objective proof of actual damages, not some nebulous claim that it made you feel sad. No harm, no real chance of an award - certainly not enough to pay the $20,000 or so it might cost you to just begin a civil action. You may also be required to file in another state. So, you have a lot of research to do.

Most such defamation cases are not worth the cost to pursue even if they can be proven. So, be prepared to find that you have no practical recourse other than asking the owner of the blog or the ISP to remove the posts/site/blog in question.

 

[Proserpina]

As a side note, I don't think I have ever seen a website with so many advertisements. They are literally covering my screen and blocking out important legal information on this site.

Contact the site admin. Try running ad-blocking software too.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California.

Hello, I apologize if I am in the wrong category. I just registered, and having a difficult time with navigation. It took me at least ten minutes to find the forums.

Now to my question.

Someone on an Internet blog has slandered me and mutilated photos of me, for his own selfish satirical purposes. I need to know how we report blog crimes, and who we report them to. I tried in an amicable way to work with the slanderer, but he is of bad will and cannot be reasoned with.

I am only interested in the law, not personal and subjective opinions. Thanks.

First, the advertisements on this site help to pay the bills. I agree they can be annoying but you are able to block them if they annoy you too much.

Second, false statements that work to injure reputations (defamation) is called slander when spoken but libel when written. If someone has written false statements about you or altered photos in a way that defames you, these would be libelous not slanderous.

The first step to take is the one you wisely took already - trying to work with the person who posted information about you on his blog.

If the person cannot be reasoned with and remove the offending material voluntarily, your next step can be to contact the webhost and request that any defamatory material about you be removed from the blog (and you can also request that the webhost take any additional action against the blogger that the webhost feels is deserving).

You will probably want to have what has been posted about you personally reviewed by an attorney in your area who is well-versed in defamation laws, however, to make sure that what has been posted about you is, in fact, defamatory. Not all derogatory comments or photo-modifications are defamatory. What is posted needs to be false and needs to affect your reputation in an adverse way.

Following is a link to California Jury Instructions on defamation (what a jury needs to consider when a defamation lawsuit makes it to the trial stage). Most cases (of all kinds) will settle before trial. https://www.justia.com/trials-litigation/docs/caci/1700/

And here is a link to the Digital Media Law Project's overview of California defamation law: http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/california-defamation-law

Defamation laws are not inexpensive suits to pursue. I have 2015 statistics gathered somewhere on the average costs of taking a case to trial and if I locate these I will post back. Because of the costs involved, I hope you are able to come to a solution that does not involve taking legal action against the blogger.

Again, I suggest you seek out a personal review by an attorney in your area of California and see where to go from there. Good luck.


(gosh, Pro and Carl, you are FAST with your posting )

 

[CdwJava]

We didn't respond with nearly as much depth as you did.

 

[quincy]

We didn't respond with nearly as much depth as you did.

That is only because I find it incredibly hard to shut up.

Instead of printing out the statistics I have compiled for the last few years (it would take me too long to redact a lot of information), here is a link to a professional insurance company's compilation of statistics (which actually differ a little bit from mine although we both used the same Media Law Resource Center source). Included with the statistics are some notable defamation (and infringement and misappropriation) suits of recent years.

Although the information provided by the insurance company is tailored for the media (and shows nicely why media professionals need liability insurance ), it does work to show how expensive defamation suits can be - and why it is smart to avoid defaming anyone.

I have no connection to the following insurance company and offer this link up for information purposes only.

From OneBeacon Professional Insurance, here is a link to "2015 Media Liability Claims Trends 2015:"

http://www.onebeaconpro.com/sites/OneBeaconProfessional/documents/reports/Media Claims Trends 2015.pdf

 

[CdwJava]

From personal anecdotal experience, the minimum expectation to pay to play in civil court is about $20-25,000 and that is for relatively simple matters without a plethora of experts, discovery, or depositions.

 

[quincy]

From personal anecdotal experience, the minimum expectation to pay to play in civil court is about $20-25,000 and that is for relatively simple matters without a plethora of experts, discovery, or depositions.

As an initial expenditure, the $20-25,000 might be about right in some areas for private individuals. These costs tend to escalate rapidly in defamation suits, though, because the damages that can be awarded for reputational injury to even private individuals are extremely high. These cases are often fought hard by both parties and they tend to last a long time (not months but years).

We had a poster to this site not all that long ago who was inquiring about bankruptcy because a doctor sued him over defamatory statements the poster had made online about the doctor (scurrilous statements and totally invented). At any rate, the judgment awarded the doctor was over $1 million. Unfortunately for our poster, defamation awards cannot (generally) be discharged in bankruptcy.

It is just not a very good idea to lie about people.

 

[CdwJava]

That's about what it costs just to get to play out here (as I said, without depositions, experts, etc.). And, from what I hear, prevailing in a defamation suit in CA is quite hard absent some quantifiable damages. I know people who have been on either side of these matters - one was even publicly accused of committing theft to the point that she lost out on two good jobs as a result of the newspaper articles (the accusers were not reporters, but people who made the statements to the press and she had been completely exonerated at that point by both the police and the DA's office). But, since it was going to cost her $25,000 for a retainer and she was told that prevailing was somewhere south of a coin toss and would likely cost at least double that, she chose to suffer through it and leave it be.

While it might vary throughout the country, I strongly suspect that being called a doo-doo head and being made fun of online is going to be a difficult case to win.

 

[quincy]

... While it might vary throughout the country, I strongly suspect that being called a doo-doo head and being made fun of online is going to be a difficult case to win.

Yes, being called a doo-doo head is not the stuff of a good defamation suit.

 

[Razzbo]

Thanks for all the responses. Good information indeed.

 

[quincy]

You're welcome, Razzbo. We all appreciate the thanks.

Good luck.

 

[Razzbo]

Information in this thread is incorrect. It doesn't cost twenty thousand dollars to sue a person for slander and defamation. I wish people would study the law and cite their legal sources before they state falsehoods in a public platform.