Anthony DiPierro wrote:
On 4/23/06, Michael Snow
<wikipedia(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
Anthony DiPierro wrote:
On 4/23/06, Daniel P. B. Smith
<wikipedia2006(a)dpbsmith.com> wrote:
>From: "Anthony DiPierro"
<wikilegal(a)inbox.org>
>
>So someone goes to a community corkboard in an apartment building and
>writes "John Heybobarebob is gay" on the bathroom door. Then the
>owner of the apartment building sees the defamatory statement, takes
>down the message, and stores it in a closet with a bunch of other
>removed messages. Then a janitor goes into to the closet, takes the
>message, and creates photocopies which she proceeds to hand out to
>people.
>
>You think the building owner can be sued?
>
>
I'm _certain_ the building owner can be sued.
The question is, can the plaintiff win? That's a completely different
question... and since IANAL I wouldn't even try to guess.
C'mon now, there are plenty of people who are not lawyers who are
trying to guess. Surely the fact that you are not a lawyer is not the
reason you wouldn't even try to guess.
No, the real reason he isn't trying to guess is because he has good
sense. You don't see any lawyers trying to guess, do you?
--Michael Snow
Are you implying that lawyers have good sense?
I certainly don't claim that for all of them, but they're probably as
capable of good sense as the rest of the population.
Anyway, no, I don't see any lawyers trying to
guess, but lawyers tend
to be greedy and not give away their expertise without getting paid
for it - one of the reasons I'm not a lawyer.
Actually, most lawyers of my acquiantance are frequently willing to give
their initial impression about a situation to people they know, without
insisting on being paid. Any lawyer knows that one of the
blessings/curses of their avocation is the inundation of friends and
family with questions about legal issues, even if the appropriate
response sometimes is, "You need to get a lawyer." However, lawyers
generally prefer to deal with real situations, not made-up ones; this is
at best a law school exam hypothetical, and they've already done enough
of those, thank you very much.
Also, to the extent that this implicates a real situation, any sensible
attorney should have an idea of who they're communicating with. To the
extent that you're responding to a potential client, it's usually not a
good idea to discuss it in a public forum, because then you've probably
destroyed any attorney-client privilege that might exist for the
communication.
--Michael Snow