It’s rough out here in Los Angeles for bloggers who report on the practices of real estate companies and mortgage lenders! According to a story in the L.A. times, entitled, “R.E. Blogs Under Attack,” Mortgage Lender Implode-o-meter, and Blown Mortgage have been sued recently in Los Angeles County for defamation. The California Defamation Law Blog will keep an eye on these cases and report back to you with any news as it becomes available. But for the time being, I want to make an important point that I’ve been making for the last two months, and the point is this: Lawsuits against bloggers have increased dramatically in recent years, and in my opinion, will continue to rise. Why do I say this? Well, for two reasons: (1) more people are starting blogs everyday, and (2) more people are getting their information on the internet, which increases the impact of blogs with respect to the public, and thereby increases the potential for damage to an individual or companies’ reputation.
So, how do you protect yourself if you’re a blogger? I’ll answer that question in the upcoming weeks in a series that I’m going to call, Blog Protection 101. Trust me, if you’re a blogger you don’t want to miss this. And if you’re not a blogger don’t worry. I’m going to sprinkle in some other general posts about developments in California Defamation law, too.
Interesting post, but how to these plaintiffs: 1) quantify their damages and 2) attribute those damages to the defendants?
That’s a good question, Brett. Damages have always been difficult to quantify in the defamation context because courts are essentially putting a value on reputation. What is it worth? But, increasingly, we are seeing courts use a market share approach. Question number two merits an entire post.