Now a member of Media Bloggers Association

As noted in this announcement, Media Bloggers Association Welcomes New Members, I am now a member.

Maine blogger faces lawsuit

From today's Boston Globe:

"A coastal Maine blogger who criticized the state's tourism office has been hit with a lawsuit seeking potentially more than $1 million in damages for allegedly making false statements and posting on his website, Maine Web Report, images from proposed tourism advertisements a New York agency prepared for Maine officials.

"The case raises the issue of how free speech protection will be applied in the proliferating world of weblogs, or blogs, and underscores the growing influence of bloggers on business and government."

The blogger, Lance Dutson, has more on this as well as a list of other blogs that have written about the case.

Shield law fails to protect NY Post

In a $40 million defamation case, a New York judge has granted former New York Knick Latrell Sprewell's motion to preclude the New York Post from relying on confidential sources in its motion for summary judgment and consequently denied the motion in part, according to a report in the New York Law Journal. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marcy S. Friedman wrote:

"The identity of the confidential sources is ... clearly material to this action as it bears directly on the issue of malice -- specifically, whether the confidential eyewitnesses were reliable sources for the articles or whether defendants' reliance upon them showed a reckless disregard for the truth. This court [finds] that defendants have put the [Shield Law's] privilege in issue, and that they may not rely on the confidential sources in support of their showing on their summary judgment motion that they did not act with malice."

Sprewell claims that the paper damaged his reputation by reporting that he had fractured his hand swinging at someone during a party on his boat. The newspaper invoked the state shield law in refusing to identify its source. To this, the judge replied:

"[W]hile the Shield Law exempts professional journalists from contempt for refusal to disclose confidential sources, 'the Legislature has never established an absolute right or granted journalists complete immunity from all legal consequences of refusing to disclose evidence relating to a news source.'"

The ruling means that the case may now proceed to trial.

Podcast: Report from ABA Techshow

This week's Coast to Coast podcast comes live from ABA Techshow. We interview Tom Mighell, blogger and member of the Techshow planning board, and David Snow, legal technology editor for Law.com.

Coast to Coast is the weekly legal affairs podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and me and produced by the Legal Talk Network. An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

• Download or listen to this week's show here.

Law firm ruled public figure in defamation suit

A New York judge has ruled that a politically connected Long Island law firm is a public figure and must meet the actual malice standard in a defamation suit against a legislator who publicly accued the firm of over-billing and trying to cover up misconduct, Law.com reports. The judge noted that even though well-known lawyers representing famous clients are not generally held to be public figures, she found this firm to meet the standard because of its lawyers' prominence in local public affairs and steps the firm had taken to draw public attention to itself.

Podcast: Creating strong law firm Web sites

On the legal-affairs podcast Coast to Coast this week, we discuss the elements of an effective law firm Web site. Joining us are three of the nation's top experts in law firm Web sites:

• Tim Stanley, CEO of the legal Web site company Justia.com and former CEO and co-founder of FindLaw.
• Pete Boyd, Florida attorney and president of PaperStreet Web design for attorneys.
• Dennis Kennedy, lawyer and legal technology innovator.
  

Coast to Coast is the weekly legal news podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and me and produced by the Legal Talk Network. An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

• Download or listen to this week's show here.