At 07:24 AM 6/17/2000 -0600, Arthur Blackwell wrote:
>[xj] Lawsuit for libel? LONG!!!!
Not in the US, brother, though they may be elsewhere. In the US, truth is
an absolute defence to any defamation action, and a summary dismissal AND,
almost certainly, an award of sanctions (attorney's fees) would result.
Virtually no defamation suits are filed in the US any more and it has
effectively been a moribund area of the law for the past third of a century.
Now, the DEEPER question, though, is where a lawsuit based on an Internet
allegation could be filed. With written communications, jurisdiction runs
to any locality where the publication is willingly circulated -- that is, a
newspaper published in the US but which freely sells copies in Canada would
allow a suit to be filed either in the US or in Canada, though a casual
publication (a tourist simply carrying a copy of the offending journal
north of the border) would not.
But no court has yet firmly ruled WHERE litigation resulting from the 'Net
can be filed, so here is YOUR chance to get your name on a brand-new,
history-making legal principle, and your progeny can stand tall in future
years knowing the family name is being taught to First-Year Law Students
around the globe ...
But, seriously, there is no real danger of a defamation action from a
gratuitous discussion held on an Internet site.
Marc James Small
Attorney-at-Law
msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
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