Can I be sued for libel if I'm innocent?
AHHH… My ex boyfriend claims I made libelous statements about his company on a couple of forums. I did not. He also claims he can prove they came from my IP address. How could they have? So, I asked him which forums and went to look – the comments were not that bad. The poster said the product broke and he was not given a refund. I read on and people were bashing the guy and some were on his side. The thread went on for 5 pages of bantering back and forth. The guy felt burned and wasn’t happy. This was not me. It seems like, to me, that my ex may have written these – because they are not that bad – and is now trying to squeeze money (or thinks he will) from me.
1) Is it possible to make something look like it came from someone else’s IP address?
2) Would a judge even hear this case b/c someone doesn’t like his product? It seems to me that this guy has every right to his opinion.
3) I don’t have a lawyer, or money to get one. I’m on Medicaid and food stamps, and have a 3 year old. I’m also a student. To make matters worse, I am pregnant with my ex boyfriend‘s baby (this guy I speak of). Can I really be sued? How would he get money from me?
4) This is a frivolous law suit, but how can I prove this? He has a computer programmer who is pretty genius on the computer – if he falsified these comments to make them look like they came from me, could I somehow prove they didn’t?
5) If I have to go to court, can I represent myself and be able to win?
Related Information:
Tagged with: computer programmer • food stamps • ip address • law suit • lawyer • libelous statements • medicaid • money • pretty genius
Filed under: Ways To Get An Ex Back
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Like the poster above me said, IP addresses are not stored in the forum pages itself. Only in the server, assuming the site engineers record them permanently anyways. First, he’s lying. He was not able get the IP address from the website.
Lets say he did get the IP address, then it most certainly was by illegal means. In which case the evidence is inadmissible in court anyways.
He’s doing a major bluff. You should say you were unfaithful and fooled around with his best friend or something, just to irk him.
You can always be sued. Sounds like your ex is trying to intimidate you. Yes, you can represent yourself… my friend did this in a recent frivolous suit against him. And it worked!
Contact your local bar association and see if they can recommend someone to help you prepare documents. Also, if there is a law school in your area see if a senior student will assist you with forms.
Good luck!
Usually it all depends on who has the better lawyer.
The IP addresses would be recorded, if at all, in the website’s server, not the forum itself. I don’t know of any website that displays the IP addresses of the post-ers.
Sounds to me like he is just bluffing you. Tell him to do what he feels he needs to do. Nothing will come of it.