When discussing vendors

[Basil]

In case you ever wondered why I ask forum members not to openly criticize vendors or businesses in the forum, I happened to run across THIS in another forum and thought I would share it with you.

Bottom line: if you wish to share a bad vendor experience with another member, please consider doing so by email.

Basil

 

[Gary Lloyd]

WOW!!!!

 

[Bruce74B]

Too many lawyers without enought to do in this world!!!

 

[aerog]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bruce74B:
Too many lawyers without enought to do in this world!!!<hr></blockquote>

The plantiff in these cases is representing himself, no lawyers involved. Law is his "hobby".

 

[Guest]

Looks like his "hobby" cost him. I'd bet if he had a real laywer he would have won. No law against stating true facts providing you have the documentation to back up what you say. Now,on the other hand, if you are just spouting malicious BS, then you deserve what you get.

 

[Wade Keene]

No, no law against saying something if its true, generally speaking. And its not libel or slander if its true and the allegedly libelled person is a public person or entity - such as a business. They put themselves out there in the public "view" and therefore are subject to unflattering things being said about them. A lawsuit like this clown filed is exactly the same as a restaurant filing suit over a bad review. It's been a couple of years since my torts and ethics classes, but it sure seems to me that

A) if anyone would have had the spine to actually fight it out, the suit would have been defeated. The guy who forked over money for allegedly hacking into the clown's website doesn't count - that's an entirely different issue.

B) If a lawyer would have filed this suit that had any of the same professors I did, they would have tracked him down and kicked his butt for filing a frivolous suit. Filing frivolous suits, such as ones that go against basic rules of law, is (depending on where you are) subject to disciplinary action and (depending on where you are) can get you on the hook for the defendant's legal expenses.

 

[bill taylor]

I agree with you Wade

 

[aerog]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by gmasterman:
Looks like his "hobby" cost him. I'd bet if he had a real laywer he would have won. No law against stating true facts providing you have the documentation to back up what you say. Now,on the other hand, if you are just spouting malicious BS, then you deserve what you get.<hr></blockquote>

I think you misunderstood my posting. The plaintiff, the fellow suing dozens of people for merely relating their true-life experiences on an online forum, is the person who's hobby is "law". "Too many lawyers" doesn't even enter into it.

 

[aerog]

Wade:

You are precisely right - except for two small things:

(1) Somewhere in the mess of spewing lawsuits generated by this character he brings up the point of trademark infringement. I gather his opinion is that it is illegal for you to use the name of his business (trademarked) online for the world to see - even though it's only in a forum setting.

(2) I'm not convinced at all that this guy cares about winning the case(s). I'm sure he'd love the $15million handed over to him, but if you read some of his interviews it's pretty clear he might be using the court system as a tool of revenge against everyone involved - with or without a judgement. At one point he seems to gloat about the fact that the defendants all have to travel to his state to defend themslves, while he lives only 5 miles from the court. No matter what the final judgement is, these defendants lose financially.

Pain, suffering, anxiety? Yeah right.

 

[Wade Keene]

Hi aerog,

Keeping in mind that I neither care to, nor plan to be involved in any of the areas of law that are under discussion, and I'm taking the bar this summer (meaning not yet) I'd wager that this guy's suit has as much merit with respect to trademark infringement as it does libel. It stands to reason that if his thinking is correct, mentioning any business online with a trademarked name would be illegal. Whether that mention is positive or negative is irrelevant; somehow I doubt that's what the people that make intellectual property laws intended.

"Using the court system as a tool of revenge" is a clear ethical violation if you're a lawyer (yeah I know, I've seen state's attorney's pull s**t that should make your skin crawl) , and if you're a regular person doing it (depending on where you are) there are still safeguards for the victims. The thing is, winning at trial (or not) is a totally different thing from filing a suit. There's absolutely nothing wrong with filing a suit that's a longshot, like a man suing GM for sexual harassment(example out of my butt - you thought I was going to say casebook?) But filing something like slipping in a puddle on the sidewalk in front of someones' house on a dry, sunny, summer's day (example from same place as previous example) would get you in trouble. Neither plaintiff may reasonably think he'd win at trial, for very different reasons, but the difference is the second guy doesn't have a bonafide complaint and should take it in the wallet for the trouble he's caused the defendant. Depending on where you are, there's mechanisms for this to happen. I'm not going to check it out because it's something their lawyers should be doing

Crap like this is just one reason I'm going into criminal law! That and we get to say things like "crackwhore" in courtrooms.

 

[Basil]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wade Keene:
No, no law against saying something if its true, generally speaking. <hr></blockquote>

That is true enough, however, the problem is that I, as the owner of this humble forum, am not in a position to judge whether something someone posts is true or not. For this reason, and the fact that I could not afford to get dragged (drug?) into court, regardless, would thus prefer that we keep "potential" slanderous information off the forum. If someone asks about a particular vendor and someone else has had a bad experience, or other unfavorable information, I just ask that the response be by email.

Basil

PS: This discussion reminds me of one of my favorite Eagles' songs, "Get Over It." One of the lines goes something like, "Old Billy was right, lets kill all the lawyers, lets kill em tonight..." (Billy is William Shakespear, of course)

[ 04-24-2003: Message edited by: Basil ]</p>