Although the defendant doesn’t have the funds to pay it, a jury has just awarded $11.3 million to a plaintiff who had been defamed by Internet postings. The defendant posted on a website that the plaintiff was a “crook,” “con artist,” and a “fraud.”

The only thing surprising about this suit was the amount of the damage award…not that the defendant would be liable for defamation. However, the size of the award is easily accounted for by the fact that the defendant was not represented by counsel and presented no defense. In essence, a sympathetic jury only heard the plaintiff’s side of the story.

Hat tip to the USA Today for this story.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.