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MIAMI: A US jury has awarded a woman $11.3 million in costs and damages after a former acquaintance accused her of being a crook, a con artist and a fraudster on an Internet talkboard.
The award, believed to be the largest verdict of it sort relating to individual postings on bulletin boards or blogs, was handed down by a jury in Broward County, Florida, against a woman from Louisiana. The sum included $5 million in punitive damages.
Sue Scheff, who runs a small educational business in Weston, Florida, filed the case in 2003 claiming she had been subjected to 10 months of ugly criticism on the Internet from Carey Bock. Bock, from Mandeville, Louisiana, had posted the comments on Fornits.com, a board used by parents of troubled teenagers. She did not attend the final hearing.
Craig Delsack, a media lawyer in Manhattan, said that many bloggers were publishing first, thinking later: “People are thinking they can say what they want but they don’t realise the long-lasting implications of what they write and that they can be held accountable”.
The Florida case arose after Scheff helped Bock remove her children from a special school in Costa Rica. She says Bock grew belligerent after she refused to give her confidential information for a documentary.
Because Bock failed to defend herself, media lawyers say the award is less likely to set a precedent.
Ed Pilkington
