Lawyer Sues Everyone for Defamation
About a month ago, a lawyer in Washington DC represented a man charged with a felony. Apparently, the lawyer ran into some problems. The judge berated him for being inexperienced and unprepared for the case. A private investigator claimed that the lawyer told him to trick a witness into testifying that she did not see the defendant at the murder scene. The judge declared a mistrial. The incident became the subject of a Washington Post story. The story ran in the ABA Bar Journal. Several legal blogs discussed it.
Well, now that lawyer, Joseph Rakofsky, has sued everyone involved. He has filed suit in New York Superior court against the Washington Post, the ABA Bar Journal and dozens of lawyers who dared to discuss his case in public. See Petition here. Mr. Rakofsky was a 2009 graduate of Touro Law School. Perhaps, some law school snobbery was at play here. In any event, he was much criticized in the blogosphere. He sued persons such as J-Dog84@yahoo.com, Accident Lawyer, Thomson Reuters, the large legal publishing firm, Tarrant84, the University of St. Thomas Law School, and other more traditional defendants. He sued some 74 defendants, all apparently because they criticized him and, as he alleged, repeated mis-statements about his felony case. These defendants reside and work in many different states and the District of Columbia. The petition is some 70 pages long with few details regarding the alleged defamation by the 74 defendants. The petition mostly contains ample detail explaining why he did what he did during the trial.
Blogging is still a new creature. Many still confuse a blog with a news source. We do not report news. We comment on the news. My comment regarding this suit is he must have a large budget for effecting service on Defendants.....
One point in this fellow's defense, and not commenting on anything else, generally, in most states, it is still defamation for the "repeater." In other words, someone who repreats a defamatory statement is just as responsible as the original publisher; you are not in the clear if you repeat what is defamatory. Another point comes to mind, anyone (or any corporation) is subject to a defamation suit.
Good point. That helps explain his legal theory. I saw recently that his lawyer is withdrawing, so Mr. Rakofsky may have other problems.