How can I get a court order to remove slanderous comments from a website?

[uncool]

My jurisdiction is: California

Hi. A post at the complaintsforum was made about me & my hobby business I run but was completely false and a lie. The owners of the site said they only remove content with a court order. I don't want to have to hire an attorney if I can file the court order myself.

Also, is it possible to obtain the user's email, ip address, etc (who posted the lies) with a subpoena? How else would I go about doing that? I may try to sue for defamation of character since everything he wrote is a lie (at which, yes, I will probably have to hire a lawyer).

Thanks in advance for anyones help.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Is this a large company? Part of the problem is always determining whom to sue. It may help you if you tell the company you're going to sue them - but send a written letter first.

I'll tell you this much - unless the statement is clearly false (and not just opinion), you'll have a difficult time getting the comment removed. This is because if there isn't a false statement uttered (and not just harsh opinion), there isn't really a basis to remove the post. You may be better off looking for other violations of the site's terms of use in order to get the post removed.