DerekSmall
New Member
Hi all,
I used to co-own a popular website in which we offered help for people who were struggling financially. The site was funded by myself and one other, and we accepted donations to contribute to the running of the site.
The site became very popular and to be honest, at one point we probably could have taken a wage from it, but we declined as that was not what the donations were for. We did, however, employ an 'admin assistant' to help with the day-to-day running.
I resigned as director of the limited company that was setup shortly after it was completed (roughly 2 years ago), as I was initially involved from a technical standpoint. As such, I am no longer an owner, yet I still have 'admin' access to the forum.
We had an incident where out admin assistant had taken private messages between people in our chatroom (as she had admin access) and posted those messages in a public part of the forum, without the permission of the people who's messages they were.
She was dismissed for this, as this was a deliberate attempt to discredit the site.
The admin assistant was also overpaid accidently (as there was a monthly direct transfer setup to pay her). The other founder of the site, emailed several times requesting that this overpayment be repaid to us. These requests were ignored.
Temporarily, we closed the chatroom, and closed the part of the forum where the private messages were posted (they were posted in so many places and by so many people - help was enlisted - that it was deemed safer to close the whole forum).
Shortly after the closure of parts of the forum, other users were asking questions about when it was going to be back up, and why certain website addresses were being redirected to disney.com - the admin assistant had started a very similar website and was sending messages to our users telling them to visit there instead of our site.
I replied by stating what had happened - in full.
I was also led to believe by the other founder of the site that he had the police involved - this, I believe, he changed his mind on and decided not to do, yet I had posted that this was the case as I truly belived that the police were going to get involved regarding our security breach.
I also posted that the parts of the site were closed due to dishonest and easily led people.
About a year later, we had a request that these posts be removed and an apology be posted up.
At this point, I had very little to do with the site and it's running. I personally, was not asked to remove anything, nor was I asked to apologise.
The posts were removed by a moderator in the forum, and the co-founder of the site refused to post an apology as what was said posted was true.
The site, not me, received a letter from the admin assistants solicitor stating that unless an apology was printed within 3 days they would bring about a libel action.
The other chap refused - remember, I wasn't privvy to this at the time and had no say or influence over wether or not an apology would be posted.
Now, it seems that they are suing me personally in addition to the other founder and the limited company itself.
I still haven't had any confirmation of this personally, and the only reason I know I am being sued personally is through hearsay.
My question is, what do I stand to lose here? As far as I can see, I haven't libeled anyone as, apart from the police investigation - which I believed to be true and it turned out not to be, everything in the posts were factual.
Is there likely to actually be a case, or will a judge see it for what it is, i.e. sour grapes and throw it out?
I used to co-own a popular website in which we offered help for people who were struggling financially. The site was funded by myself and one other, and we accepted donations to contribute to the running of the site.
The site became very popular and to be honest, at one point we probably could have taken a wage from it, but we declined as that was not what the donations were for. We did, however, employ an 'admin assistant' to help with the day-to-day running.
I resigned as director of the limited company that was setup shortly after it was completed (roughly 2 years ago), as I was initially involved from a technical standpoint. As such, I am no longer an owner, yet I still have 'admin' access to the forum.
We had an incident where out admin assistant had taken private messages between people in our chatroom (as she had admin access) and posted those messages in a public part of the forum, without the permission of the people who's messages they were.
She was dismissed for this, as this was a deliberate attempt to discredit the site.
The admin assistant was also overpaid accidently (as there was a monthly direct transfer setup to pay her). The other founder of the site, emailed several times requesting that this overpayment be repaid to us. These requests were ignored.
Temporarily, we closed the chatroom, and closed the part of the forum where the private messages were posted (they were posted in so many places and by so many people - help was enlisted - that it was deemed safer to close the whole forum).
Shortly after the closure of parts of the forum, other users were asking questions about when it was going to be back up, and why certain website addresses were being redirected to disney.com - the admin assistant had started a very similar website and was sending messages to our users telling them to visit there instead of our site.
I replied by stating what had happened - in full.
I was also led to believe by the other founder of the site that he had the police involved - this, I believe, he changed his mind on and decided not to do, yet I had posted that this was the case as I truly belived that the police were going to get involved regarding our security breach.
I also posted that the parts of the site were closed due to dishonest and easily led people.
About a year later, we had a request that these posts be removed and an apology be posted up.
At this point, I had very little to do with the site and it's running. I personally, was not asked to remove anything, nor was I asked to apologise.
The posts were removed by a moderator in the forum, and the co-founder of the site refused to post an apology as what was said posted was true.
The site, not me, received a letter from the admin assistants solicitor stating that unless an apology was printed within 3 days they would bring about a libel action.
The other chap refused - remember, I wasn't privvy to this at the time and had no say or influence over wether or not an apology would be posted.
Now, it seems that they are suing me personally in addition to the other founder and the limited company itself.
I still haven't had any confirmation of this personally, and the only reason I know I am being sued personally is through hearsay.
My question is, what do I stand to lose here? As far as I can see, I haven't libeled anyone as, apart from the police investigation - which I believed to be true and it turned out not to be, everything in the posts were factual.
Is there likely to actually be a case, or will a judge see it for what it is, i.e. sour grapes and throw it out?
