What Would Happen If Jack Thompson Sued Us For Defamation?
Posted by Liz Surette on January 3, 2009Well, I’m still a little tired from last semester, but recent events and discussions off and on GamesLaw have given me the energy to wonder: exactly how would a court find if Jack Thompson sued us for defamation? Let’s have a look, shall we?
The threshold issue would be whether Former Attorney Thompson is a public figure or a private citizen. Even though he is not widely known to those outside of gaming, politics, or fear-mongering, he has chosen to inject himself into public controversy(1). Based on his extensive…presence in the media, I’d conclude that he is in fact a public figure. Public figures may recover damages from the media only upon a showing that the speaker or publisher acted with actual malice in making the statements in question. Actual malice is typically defined as publishing a statement that the publisher knows with some certainty is false(2).
Thompson might allege that we acted with such malice. Even though our writings are well-researched and often contain direct quotes from him, I wouldn’t underestimate his ability to find “false statements” regarding his exploits on our site. The burden to prove malice would be his, but he’d be hard-pressed to find that any of the facts in our articles are untrue. Should he attempt to sue us for comments that our readers leave, he would be out of luck because we are not liable for comments made on this site by third parties(3). In sum, the proceedings in our favor would be short and sweet. Epic fail.
Statements criticizing a public figure for conduct relating to public business receive the highest level of First Amendment protection because the risk of damage to the plaintiff’s reputation is greatly outweighed by the need to disseminate the truth, which can only be fulfilled by uninhibited public discourse(4). Just putting that out there.
1. See Gertz v. Robert Welch
2. See New York Times v. Sullivan and Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
3. See 47 U.S.C.A. s. 230(c)(1)
4. See Garrison v. State of Louisiana
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You forgot 5) John Bruce would threaten and then never follow up on his threat to sue you for defamation.
Jack would also have to prove actual damage to his reputation. Considering that he is a disbarred and disgraced ex-lawyer, that would probably be pretty difficult. I’d like to think you could line up a whole slew of character witnesses to testify that they think Jack is an incompetent, insane ex-lawyer.
It would be like trying to sue for defamation when you’ve been arrested at three different Chuck-E-Cheeses.
Well, Jack is trying to make a similar stunt on JAABLOG, stating some law that supposedly “Every member of the bar that helps another member breaks a bar rule breaks a rule himself” (at least, that’s what I’ve understood).
Someone should show him this “47 U.S.C.A. s. 230(c)(1)”. But then again, he only listens to himself.
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