Lawyers on Chat Boards ...

[Malthus]

... not always a good idea.

See this mess:

http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201002016292/Headline-News/Online-comments-spark-messy-litigation

[Ed Anger]

The problem is that society has allowed lawyers to overbreed and multiply. They need to be culled.

[Barrister]

I was a regular on that board (hell, I was a mod), and even posted in the impugned thread.   

[Malthus]

I was a regular on that board (hell, I was a mod), and even posted in the impugned thread.   

What happened? Did you forget to use your mod powers for good instead of evil? 

[Barrister]

The article pretty much sums it up.  It was a board supposedly aimed at the Canadian legal community.  The signal to noise ratio was pretty low, but I found it interesting enough to keep coming back over a few years.  The ownership of the board was always kept a mystery though - even as a mod there we were never clear who we 'reported to', and most of our issues or complaints went ignored.

Anyways, back in March '09 someone from a business called Advice Scene showed up, gave a link, and asked for comments.  Several people thought it wasn't much of a business, and questioned various issues of trying to give legal advice over the internet.  The Advice Scene person respectfully disagreed, but even said 'thanks for the comments, even the negative ones'.

In retrospect, since I'm able to go back and look at deleted threads, I actually said 'I think you guys are a bit harsh, I don't see anything objectionable, but I'm not about to start posting there'.

The thread however lasted a few days, then went off the radar.

Until many months later, we all log into the board to see a giant-ass apology to Advice Scene plastered across the top of the board.  We ask what the hell has happened, and we actually get an answer.  Advice Scene filed a Statement of Claim for defamation based on the thread.  The board owners (who it turns out are ZSA, a legal recruitment company), don't want to fight the suit, so they give AS whatever they want.  Which it turns out was the apology, and all possible information about 4 individual posters who they thought were objectionable.

Since they didn't actually tell the 4 people involved until after they gave out the info, people were quite upset.  At that point I guess ZSA had enough, as they simply shut down the board entirely a couple days later.

But anyways, as the article makes clear, one of the 4 is actually a lawyer who had numerous times said exactly who he was (a plaintiff's attorney in Ontario).  So although he was never  served a Statement of Claim, and was only named a "John Doe #3", he proceeds to file a Statement of Defence to the claim.

So anyways, nobody looks very good coming out of this (other than Russ, the lawyer).  Advice Scene looks incredibly silly for launching a defamation claim almost a year later, over a thread that few people ever saw, for comments that don't appear to be defamatory, and for which they were looking for comments.  ZSA however looks like hell for throwing the anonymity of its posters away without even informing the people in question.  And in the end one of my daily internet stops has closed down.

But I guess it should be expected for a board catering to lawyers.  As a mod we pretty routinely had people threaten to sue us.  Mostly those threats were ridiculous and were never acted upon, but I guess it was only a matter of time.

[Syt]

Fortunately we never talk bad about anyone or anything on this board, so we should be safe.

[Eddie Teach]

Fortunately we never talk bad about anyone or anything on this board, so we should be safe.

[Barrister]

Actually I tried to make the point a few years ago that a lot of the stuff we say on this board could theoretically be actionable.   And there is a slow but steady stream of stories of people getting into very real trouble over things posted on blogs, facebook, etc.  So I do try to keep that in mind whenever I posted things even on Languish.

[Razgovory]

A board made up entirely of lawyers must be a petty and dull place with all the excitement of a slow motion slap fight.

[Grey Fox]

Would any of this actually hold up in court?

If yes. My faith in the canadian legal system is totally gone.

[Barrister]

Would any of this actually hold up in court?

Doesn't matter.  It'll cost you a lot of money to actually fight it in court.  So unless you're a litigous self-employed lawyer who isn't above using the incident for a bit of self-promotion, you run for the hills.

One other twist:  someone has been running a blog about the litigation.  It's not clear who they are, other than they have a major axe to grind against lawbuzz.  But if you're really, really interested in this story, the blog does contain links to the pleadings, news stories, and the like.

http://lawbuzzlitigation.blogspot.com/

[Malthus]

Fortunately we never talk bad about anyone or anything on this board, so we should be safe.

My statements of claim are ready just in case ... 

[Grey Fox]

Hyundai Route 60 sucks.

[Josquius]

I personally am glad the old board died along will all the posts ever made on it.
Lest if I ever made something of my life I'd be fucked :p

[Josephus]

I personally am glad the old board died along will all the posts ever made on it.
Lest if I ever made something of my life I'd be fucked :p

Someone would have to prove Tyr is in fact you, though. I think  anything pointing to you is pretty circumstantial.