Posting on "deadbeat parent" web sites

[shara72]

There are a lot of web sites that are dedicated to posting names, pictures and other details of parents who are not paying child support. If one posts information on a non-paying parent on one of these websites (even if everything on the post is true and there are court documents to verify the facts) can you still be sued for defamation, libel, or privacy issues? The information provided on the post would be name, city and state they're living in, the amount of arrears, last places of employment and possible picture.

Thank you for any responses!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Defamation requires a false statement. Even if the statement is extremely derogatory, it will not qualify as being "false" for the purposes of defamation and libel.

With regard to privacy laws, they vary from state to state although it is unlikely that this is the kind of privacy that is protected by our Constitution. I'm not sure that posting information about a deadbeat dad is any different from a newspaper reporting the same, and they have done so. Provided that the data is publicly available information and not sensitive, protected data, I'm not sure that there would be a problem with stating such.