Libel

[bubbalooee]

I have been posting to a website which is relative to the industry I work in, it's not an official industry website but just set up by an individual. I went on there one day and saw a message by someone which was praising God and I posted Amen. I couldn't believe the response to this general statement, it was nasty. Anyway I got in a position where I was stating why I should be able to refer to my faith anywhere I want to unless there are specific rules not allowing it, there are not. Before long I started getting very personal postings by a friend of my ex wife, these being in the nature of some truth about me and my divorce and kids but also some flat out lies. I always post so that anyone with a brain knows who it is, the rest of the people on this site do not, they do not reveal who they are but I believe that most know each other. The person running the site quit posting my messages, they being considered "religious" but he is still posting the hate spewing and nasty crap these other guys are posting. They are still making personal references to me and my name and this could easily be hurting me in business and personally. I can go on the website and print the stuff off, what will be my next step in stopping this. I did get a call from a friend of mine who read the stuff and called me, he was pretty shocked. Can I sue these guys even though I don't know who they are for sure? I do think I know the one guy because there's only one that I know of that would know what he knows about me.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I have been posting to a website which is relative to the industry I work in, it's not an official industry website but just set up by an individual. I went on there one day and saw a message by someone which was praising God and I posted Amen. I couldn't believe the response to this general statement, it was nasty. Anyway I got in a position where I was stating why I should be able to refer to my faith anywhere I want to unless there are specific rules not allowing it, there are not. Before long I started getting very personal postings by a friend of my ex wife, these being in the nature of some truth about me and my divorce and kids but also some flat out lies. I always post so that anyone with a brain knows who it is, the rest of the people on this site do not, they do not reveal who they are but I believe that most know each other. The person running the site quit posting my messages, they being considered "religious" but he is still posting the hate spewing and nasty crap these other guys are posting. They are still making personal references to me and my name and this could easily be hurting me in business and personally. I can go on the website and print the stuff off, what will be my next step in stopping this. I did get a call from a friend of mine who read the stuff and called me, he was pretty shocked. Can I sue these guys even though I don't know who they are for sure? I do think I know the one guy because there's only one that I know of that would know what he knows about me.

This might be an expensive lawsuit to bring. You will need to find out who these people are for sure. This may involve you suing John Does and then subpoenaing the web site for the identities of these people. They may not have any information -- not even IP addresses -- if the request is made after logs are purged. If you have IP addresses, then you need to trace to an Internet Service Provider, find out who might have been using the IP address at the time, etc. You can see how long this might take and potential cost involved. The best you might accomplish might be to compel the web site to remove the defamatory information that has been posted or at least make it anonymous so that nobody can connect anything to you. Sometimes what is practical and the remedies of law are not always perfectly aligned and cost effective. Good luck with everything.