Legal Threats

Over the 9 years my forum has been open I have gotten my share of legal threats that have resulted with nothing but a lot of big talk.

However now I have a guy wanting to sue me because I removed one of his posts from my site. It was a political post and we have a strict no politics rule.

Now the reason why I am worried is because this guy is actually a lawyer down in Georgia. I just blew off his threats at first but the guy seems to be for real including calling my employer seeking more information on me.

This lawyer is now 8 years old and has been practicing law for over 45 years. He has no idea or understanding of online laws. I sent him over case law from the EFF and it didn't phase him... I violated his first ammemdment rights by removing his post from my site without his permisson....

I know I am on firm legal grounds, but this guy seems to be intent on making my life miserable. Any ideas or do I call my attorney up and let them duke it out?

 

Actually you're not violating his right of freedom of speech/the first amendment. He joined, agreed to your terms/rules, and now wants to sue you? Screw all that, who cares what he says. I'd have my lawyer duke it out with his - which in your case, your attorney will be right.

Because, when you have own a forum - we have ever right to remove, delete, or re-use user's posts on the site. I believe since we own the forum, we also own the content that's on the site. So thus, what grounds does he have to fight on? Nothin really, because he abided by your terms when he joined the forum. Can't follow the rules? Then get out. Personally, I'd be laughing at his emails - or just ignore them, because it won't really hold up in the courts.

At least, that's how I feel about this. Other users may know more though @CM30 @Brandon @Dan Hutter @Monster @Carlos @Creaky

 

I'd get the advice of a lawyer -- that's pretty cheap compared to a lost lawsuit ... if that guy is a lawyer himself and thinks he can win, there must be something you overlooked. Perhaps the terms and conditions page wasn't formulated properly or missing altogether, or agreement to it was too easy, there's many things that could be.

A lawyer could search his databases for similar cases and see what kind of results they had.

I suspect there's no easy answer, since you have on one hand the right to free speech, and on the other hand the rights of the forum owner to decide what content is posted on their page.

 

First and foremost the First amendment only protects us from government inhibiting or prohibiting free speech. It has very little to do with private enterprise, if anything at all.

Scott, it reads to me like this guy is just trying to bully you by calling your job. He's probably just trying to scare you. I'd retain an attorney just to counter this guy and let him know you're not a push over whether he be a lawyer or not

How sure are you this guy is really a lawyer? Any lawyer worth his salt would be to busy practicing law and running up billable hours to be running around chasing some random forum owner.

 

^This Exactly.

 

Ban him on the site.
Firewall ban his ip.
Never respond to him because he isnt worth your time.

Move on.

Until you are served I wouldn't pay too much attention to it.

You can sue anyone for anything in this day and age. It may be easy to sue but it still costs some money / time. Frivolous claims are frowned upon by the court system.

There was a time I was getting 1-2 threats a month for lawsuits. I always banned people as soon as they bring that up. When they come back and apologize I ask for confirmation that they aren't suing. A member named bluedragon tried to serve me once with his lawyer, they served the wrong person. LOL. That was the last I heard of it.

 

Well to follow up, after a bunch of his crap I did some checking up on him and then found his phone number at his lawfirm and called him.

The guy had no idea what I was talking about and dosen't even go online.

So a few minutes after making this call the idiot comes back to my site and posts nother big legal threat spouting off all this legal mumbo jumbo. It was then I felt comfortable hit the ban button.

 

I got one during the week. Someone claimed we violated their copyright, and they were in the wrong because they stole our content. Sent information back to my host and I haven't heard anything about it since. Stupid people man.

 

Every time someone threatens to sue me, I give them my mailing address to send the legal documents. I have never got anything sent to me yet. I have however sent out cease and desist emails which stopped the issue from happening. I sent one to Macafe or whatever the anti-virus service is called once for flagging my social network as unsafe, they unflagged it within 4 hours after I sent it as well as said sorry for it.