Libel Suit of Interest to Anyone who uses Email
Libel and slander cases are very rare -- I believe fewer than 1000 are actually filed in the US each year. The hurdles are very high -- the person speaking has to know that he is not telling the truth, that the speakers intends to do damage and that real damage actually happens. A board post that calls a webmaster a thief is not going to make a case if that webmaster's business has no measurable damage. A board post that calls an affiliate manager a whore is not going to make a case if that affiliate manager really is a whore. And a board post that calls a helpless attorney a lying bastard is not going to make a case because everything already believes attorneys are lying bastards. :-)
While there are a few legitimate cases where real damage was done and the poster made his accusations intentionally, most board posts are not actionable libel or the cost to pursue the matter is too high compared to the damage done. When I find an example of a libel case gone bad, I will post it.
Here is an example of electronic speech -- emails -- that went from a state court to a federal court and now, one year later, has been dismissed entirely and the parties never even got out of the starting block.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1196071463476
A libel and defamation action brought by the former coach of a U.S. Olympic skeleton team has been rejected by a federal district judge who found the court has no personal jurisdiction over the Wyoming resident who called the coach a "sexual predator" in an e-mail.
Timothy Nardiello, the former coach of the U.S. national team in the Winter Olympic sliding sport known as "skeleton," was described as a "sexual predator" and "known sexual abuser" in electronic mails sent in late 2005 and early 2006 by Terry Allen from Wyoming to members of the Skeleton Program Committee, the sport's governing board in the United States.
Skeleton athletes slide down iced runs headfirst, lying on their stomachs on small sleds. Lugers lie on their backs on small sleds and slide feet first. Both reach speeds approaching 100 mph.
Nardiello, a long-time resident of upstate Lake Placid, N.Y., contended in his action that Allen's charges "imputed unchaste behavior" upon him; contributed to Nardiello's suspension as coach of the U.S. skeleton team on the eve of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; and resulted in his outright dismissal soon afterward.
Nardiello initially sued Allen in New York Supreme Court in Essex County in December 2006. But Allen successfully removed the case to federal court in June 2007, arguing diversity of citizenship.
Northern District Judge Gary L. Sharpe ruled in Nardiello v. Allen, 07-cv-0580, that, even at the preliminary stage of this case, Nardiello failed to make a prima facie showing that the Northern District has personal jurisdiction over Allen.
To do so, Nardiello would have had to show that Allen transacted business within New York state and that the claim against him, in Nardiello's case, defamation and libel, arose from that business activity. Nardiello did not do so, Sharpe wrote, citing Sole Resort, S.A. de C.V. v. Allure Resorts Mgmt., LLC, 450 F.3d, 100 (2d Cir. 2006).
