Hi,

I may have quite a serious thread to post about a company/individual in this business.

I have seen people be threatened with legal action from said people before and want to confirm that i DO have the freedom of speech and what I say will not end up with someone thretening me with legal action?

First, the big disclaimer - I am not a lawyer, nor anything remotely close to one.

In terms of the defamation laws that I know of, if what you mention is either:

a) An honestly held opinion.
b) The truth.
c) Said under court or parliamentary privilege.

then you have a defence against whatever they might throw at you. Obviously the latter is irrelevant here. You might also worry Matt a bit if you say something too terrible :)


(court and parliamentary privilege is an Australian thing, although I'm sure other places have their equivalents or similar things)

As we are not attorneys, no one on this board could properly advise you as to any possible legal ramifications. As to whether you will be threatened, I would say if that has been the past history, it will happen this time as well. So, chances are very high of being threatened with legal action by the company/individual you refer to.

Not knowing who you are talking about, lets just say this. The majority of us try to respond professionally and don't threaten. However, there are a few, one in particular I know, who not only threaten, but regularly sue. The owner's mother is an attorney in one case. And that individual has sued everyone imaginable including the college he went to briefly (for $63 million I believe).

So proceed at your own risk. Make sure any allegations you make are factual and that you have documented evidence to support them.

Well let me explain the situation then I may go on if necessary.

A company who i know a lot of truths about have a very bad name on here. They had treated me ok until now but I have really had the final straw with what they have done to me. I know this may seem a bit sketchy at the moment, this is because I am giving the company till tonight (GMT) to sort this thing out. If not I will post an accurate account of my dealings with the business.

I am going by the belief that If I state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth I will not be breaking any laws or be liable for prosecution of any sort. I would also give them the chance to stick up agains what I say.

I would say that you'd be a a very good position to win any case brought against you if you were to tell your story. It is not illegal to have an experience, nor an opinion about something. I will mention however, that freedom of speech would most likely *not* cover this, nor will anything prevent them with threatening you with legal action.

While you do have the right to freedom of speach, to defend that right in court you will need to hire a lawyer.
Always be able to proof what you say.

In as much as what am saying does not constitute legal representation, Truth is a complete defense to slander, or libel :), in the United States at least.,

And Yes I used to practice, law; (when I was insane)

As long as what you are saying is the truth then you should have no problems, however you will need to able to prove it is the truth, or vice-versa they prove it isn't the truth.

Clevely support your facts with evidence, ICQ transcripts, e-mail messages (with headers if possible), time/date of telephone calls, postal letters, scanned contracts, credible witnesses (for downtime etc...). Also where stating an opinion clearly state so, In my opinion...

At WebHostingTalk, we've had quite a few threads which have needed edited/cleaned/reviewed due to people unleashing their anger with personal insults, and unsupported accusations, which is shame really if poeple presented their experiences as in paragraph two then the posts would have dynamite creditibility and dramastically reduce the risk of legal implications for all involved. .

Originally posted by queensoul
In as much as what am saying does not constitute legal representation, Truth is a complete defense to slander, or libel :), in the United States at least.,

And Yes I used to practice, law; (when I was insane)

Exactly! The best defense is the TRUTH.

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow
I am going by the belief that If I state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth I will not be breaking any laws or be liable for prosecution of any sort. I would also give them the chance to stick up agains what I say.

Not to beat a dead horse because many have already stated this but yes, if you tell the truth and can back it up with evidence, then there isn't a single thing they can do. Except threaten you. Slander, a form of defamation, has been one thing companies tend to try to go after. In front of a judge, if you can prove what you said was the truth, then the case will get thrown out.

Hope that helps...

Y'all are missing the point. The well-known, poorly regarded company that we're all going out of our way not to name can sue you FOR FREE because the CEO's mommy is a lawyer. It will cost YOU money to defend yourself in court, and the suit will most likely be filed in the state where the business is, not the state in which you reside. That makes it even MORE costly! Lawers in Texas, for example, charge $200/hr average and require an up-front deposit in the thousands. So unless you have enough money to defend yourself against a lawsuit, you should be VERY, VERY careful. MattF is lucky he's in the UK, and a suit aginst him would be futile. I know two people who have had lawsuits filed against them, and have heard about one other.

Yes, but even without any money to pay for the expensive lawyers, the court has to appoint you an attorney if you can't afford one. And that is FREE. As long as you don't get some schmuck then there is no law against what was done and it will then be a waste of time, which some people value, to go through the entire process.

Originally posted by markblair
Yes, but even without any money to pay for the expensive lawyers, the court has to appoint you an attorney if you can't afford one. Only in criminal cases. If someone is suing you in civil court on the grounds that your alleged defamation caused monetary damages, you won't be offered a public defender.

Lets hear the story then...we are all wetting ourselves with the suspense.

Simon

We all know him well.....

http://dailycampus.smu.edu/HTMLPages/Fall97/DC.09-10-97/DC.09-10-97-n.suit.html

ohmigod...

Well that was informative... Thanks for that link.

I guess he never got to be a doctor then... *head shaking*...

Dear oh deary me!

Originally posted by Deb Suran
Y'all are missing the point. The well-known, poorly regarded company that we're all going out of our way not to name can sue you FOR FREE because the CEO's mommy is a lawyer. It will cost YOU money to defend yourself in court, and the suit will most likely be filed in the state where the business is, not the state in which you reside. That makes it even MORE costly! Lawers in Texas, for example, charge $200/hr average and require an up-front deposit in the thousands. So unless you have enough money to defend yourself against a lawsuit, you should be VERY, VERY careful. MattF is lucky he's in the UK, and a suit aginst him would be futile. I know two people who have had lawsuits filed against them, and have heard about one other.

Terry is also in the UK, I believe.

To be honest, that’s the problem with the US!

Everyone jumps on the 'I'm suing you' bandwagon....it would never happen in the UK because it would just be thrown out of court amidst hysterical laughter!!

Cheers,

Originally posted by jonny b
To be honest, that’s the problem with the US!

Everyone jumps on the 'I'm suing you' bandwagon....it would never happen in the UK because it would just be thrown out of court amidst hysterical laughter!!

Cheers, Uhm... I hate to say this but have you heard some of the recent court actions that have been pursued in the UK...

The ads on TV, etc... We're catching up fast on the states legal ways and I for one wish the sue happy states had just kept it to themselves...

No-where else in the world can you be responsible for everyone else but not responsible for your own stupidity... so... the irresponsible sue the responsible... QED: no-one wants to show any kind of responsibility... *sigh*:eek:

Sure do agree with you.

On almost all of the cable/sky channels these days there are adverts for accident claims blah blah. Gee, I even got aproached by one of these guys in the Town centre a few weeks back! He asked if i had been in any accidents and wanted to make claims.

heh I replied with the obvious "Yeah only against this guy who stopped me in the street"

omg! That was such a hilarious read! I hope that Chris guy got kicked out of school and didn't win the suit. Cheaters are the worst, and to do all that because he got a C just shows that he's a spoiled brat.

His mother must be the poster girl for lawyer scum; people like that should have their licenses taken away.

Is this guy really a webhost?! Why do people host/work with him if there are so many problems? Isn't that as much as the other parties' fault as it is his when they get screwed over? I don't understand why so many people on this board have difficulties with him...

slightly confuzzled, but highly amused.

ochiba

Originally posted by Skeptical


Exactly! The best defense is the TRUTH.

Thanks for the laugh, I use to believe that untill one day in court on some legal action I took against an account.

Summary:

Client owes me 12K
Client won't pay. tell's me ... see you in court

I file paperwork in court, advise the credit agencies, and the membership I belong to ( with all paperwork)

the membership tell's the world about my actions against the client ( that's a part of job, and also disput resolution )

I then get a letter from clients lawyer that said summary " you have restricted my clients ability to to business, therefor we are sueing you for 1.1 million"

guess what, he might of had a chance of winning. Lucky for me I have a dispute clause in my transport contract and it said that all disputes must be solved in arbitration ( so that protected me to get my money ) with that proof, I then took it to his proceedings and got his lawsuit thrown out of court.

But what I learned from you lawyer was that. If you go announcing around the world that you have a problem with a client and that announcement effectively stops them from having any trade of business, you could get sued.

I would advise anybody posting the truth to define the scope of the problem, and toi say this was only your problem. Don't go on second hand statements.

-Sqposter / Michael