Archive for the ‘Legal Shield’ Category

By Katheryn Hayes Tucker, Daily Report

 A Cobb County middle school student has filed a defamation suit against two classmates, saying they created a fake Facebook page using her name with a distorted photograph to make her look heavier and false claims of sexual activity, drug use and racial bias. The suit, filed this month in Cobb County Superior Court, names as defendants the two classmates—a boy and a girl—and their parents, charging them with libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks punitive damages. The plaintiff is 14-year-old Alexandria Boston, known as “Alex,” now an eighth-grader at Palmer Middle School in Cobb County. Also named as plaintiffs are her parents, Christopher and Amy Lynn Boston.

Alex’s attorney is Natalie Woodward of Woodward & Stern in Roswell. Woodward said she filed the suit after Alex and her parents tried without success to have the problem addressed by the school, the police and Facebook. Woodward said Alex learned about the page from classmates who began asking her why she said the things “she” said to them in messages from the fake Facebook page. She learned through the school grapevine that a girl and boy classmate made the page and was told they admitted it when confronted by school officials, Woodward said. Alex and her parents were told by school administrators that they couldn’t take disciplinary action because the fake Facebook page was not created on school computers. Cobb County school officials declined comment.

The police said they couldn’t take legal action because no crime had been committed, Woodward said. A police report, included as an exhibit, suggests that the girl or her parents contact Facebook. Alex asked the people she knew who had “friended” the fake page to “defriend it” and report it to Facebook as fraudulent, which they did multiple times, said Woodward. She also said the girl’s father told her he contacted several other lawyers who didn’t return his call.

This spring, nearly a year after the fake page went online last May, Woodward met with Alex and her parents again. The problem had not been resolved, and Alex still wanted to do something about it. They filed the suit.

Woodward said she took the case because she didn’t want to tell Alex, “You have a defamation case. I don’t think I know how to make any money out of it, so I’m not going to take your case.” Said Woodward, “I just didn’t have the heart to do that.” Woodward said she saw a clear defamation case because none of the statements made on the fake Facebook page were true.

“We were all picked on as kids. This is different,” said Woodward, adding that the insults are “publicly viewed” by everyone without end.

Woodward said she told Alex and her parents, “I can’t promise you there’s any financial benefit to this. If your true goal is to make a change, I think we can do that.” The 36-year-old personal injury plaintiffs lawyer with degrees from the University of Georgia School of Journalism and School of Law has several ideas for strategy. One is to go after the parents’ assets, home­owners’ insurance policies and liability umbrellas. But Woodward said she has no idea if the parents have assets. She doesn’t even know their names. Woodward said the school could not release the parents’ names because of privacy laws. And while Alex knows the names of the two students she believes created the page, she doesn’t know their parents. But with the lawsuit filed, Woodward said she plans to subpoena the school for the parents’ names and any reports of the defendant students admitting to school officials that they created the fake Facebook account in Alex’s name.

Another idea is to use the case to encourage legislative changes. Several Georgia legislators have signed onto efforts to make meanness on the Internet subject to disciplinary action by schools. House Bill 310, known as the “cyberbullying” bill, ran out of time in the last session but will be brought back next year, according to its lead sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus.

Hugley was one of the sponsors of an earlier bill to give schools a structure for action against bullying. Her effort began after a Columbus girl was shot and killed while walking her sister home by a boy who had been bullied at school and had brought a gun to retaliate. Hugley said support for the effort picked up after the suicide of a bullied child in Atlanta. The Georgia Bullying Act was signed into law in 2010.

Recent as the bullying act was, its sponsors could not foresee changes in technology that now allow young people to communicate in cyberspace on laptop computers, smartphones and iPads. The new bill would refine the definition of bullying from acts done in school or on school property to any communication that disrupts school activity. “The goal has to be to make children safe in school,” Hugley said. Although Hugley was not familiar with the Woodwards’ Facebook suit, she said cyberbullying in general has escalated and will continue to be an issue in the Georgia Legislature until a legal remedy is found. “We shouldn’t have to have students suing each other,” she said. “We should have a reasonable means to address it.”

The lawsuit has helped Woodward achieve one important change for her clients—getting the page dropped from Facebook. Woodward made arrangements for Alex to tell her story on CNN this past Saturday morning with her lawyer. After they left the TV studio, Woodward said, Facebook called CNN to get Woodward’s contact information. Three hours after the CNN segment aired, the fake Facebook page disappeared from the website. Facebook sent a computer-generated response to a request for comment, saying, “We will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.”

Woodward said her client has also gained another measure of non-monetary satisfaction from the lawsuit. Alex reported that one of the defendants approached her at school this week and asked if he had been sued. Said Woodward, “She simply referred him to her attorney.”

http://www.dailyreportonline.com/Editorial/News/singleEdit.asp?l=100461721492

By: Matthew R. Crane

Imagine the following scenario – you are behind a vehicle at a stop light and the light turns green but for some inexplicable reason the driver in front of you does not go.  The drivers’ head, which was looking down, suddenly snaps up upon realizing the light has changed and the driver guns the gas.  Or maybe you are behind a vehicle on the highway that is swerving erratically and struggling to maintain a constant speed.  As you pull up beside the vehicle you notice the driver is again staring down rather than watching the road.  It doesn’t take a genius to know these drivers are texting while driving.  Most of us have witnessed at least one of these scenarios.  In fact, there is probably at least one time in the past when many of us have been the guilty driver.  No big deal though, right?  Just a quick text to let someone know when you are getting home or a short text to see how their day is going.  No harm done, right?

The reality is that driving while texting, while seemingly innocent in intention, can be very dangerous.  Some studies have shown that texting while driving is comparable to driving while under the influence and in many cases it is actually more dangerous than drunk driving.  In fact, university studies have shown that a person texting at the wheel is comparable to someone whose blood alcohol content is twice the legal limit.  The distraction caused to a texting driver can often result in the driver taking their eyes off the road for the amount of time it takes to cover a full football field.  Just imagine what could happen on a roadway in that amount of distance without the ability to react.

It is for that reason that Utah has very strict laws against the practice of texting or emailing while driving.  Under the current law, texting while driving can result in a $750 fine and up to 90 days in jail.  If injury is caused to another as a result of the offense, a driver can receive a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.  And in the worst case scenario, if a fatality should occur as the result of texting and driving, the driver could face a $10,000 fine and fifteen years in prison.  Avoid the possibility of any of these scenarios by waiting until you have reached your destination to check your inbox or send that urgent text.