Another Failed Doctor Lawsuit Against a Patient For Online Reviews--Brandner v. Molonguet

This is another lawsuit by a doctor over a patient’s negative online reviews. Dr. Brandner is an oral surgeon in Louisiana. In 2005, he treated Molonguet. Molonguet protested Brandner’s fees, but a court ruled for Brandner. In response to that…

Robert Half Can't Stop Former Employees From Telling The World Where They Used To Work (Forbes Cross-Post)

As the saying goes, a business’ most important asset is its people. That maxim applies with extra force in the staffing industry, where people literally are its business. Perhaps that explains why Robert Half, a leading staffing company, uses an…

Employee Terminated For Ill-Advised Facebook Post Gets Unemployment Benefits

This is an unemployment benefits case. Sarah Black, who was employed by Puget Sound Security Patrol made the following post to her Facebook account in February 2012: u kno wat, I do not give a f[* * *] about a…

Top 10 Fair Use Cases of 2014 (Guest Blog Post)

[Eric’s introduction: in my blog post on the copyrightability of resumes, I observed that “2014 has been a terrific year for fair use” and mused that “It would be great if someone did a ‘top 10 fair use rulings of 2014’…

Facebook May be On the Hook for Scanning Private Messages for Links

This is a privacy lawsuit against Facebook: Plaintiffs allege that Facebook scans the content of their private messages, and if there is a link to a web page contained in that message, Facebook treats it as a “like” of the…

Tweeted Article About Law Grad's Suit Over Stalking Investigation Isn't Defamatory

This is a defamation lawsuit brought by a law grad (Enjaian) against the legal press based on a story involving Enjaian’s own (personal) legal matter. (I blogged about the most recent example here: “Legal Blog Faces Defamation Liability for Mischaracterizing Prior…

Criminal Harassment Charges Survive First Amendment Challenge, Even Without The Threat of Personal Injury

This is a criminal harassment case. As recounted by the court, the Johnsons lived on the same street as the victims, the Lyonses. The Johnsons acquired some land adjacent to the Lyonses and sought to develop it, but ended up…

Facebook Putdown Leads to Lawsuit Between Sorority Sisters--Grimes v. Saban

This is an assault case brought by Sarah Grimes against her sorority sister, Kristen Saban. Grimes and Saban went out for a night of partying. Afterwards, Saban and Grimes were allegedly arguing, with Saban telling Grimes “no one liked her…

Stupid Online Teen Banter Isn't "Disorderly Conduct"--State v. Nelson

We’re revisiting the perennial topic of how to address teens doing stupid teen things online. As we’ve discussed repeatedly, teens constantly test limits online and typically lack the wisdom and perspective of adults. In my era, typical offline teen pranks…

Fair Use Protects Sending Expert Witness' Resume to Opposing Counsel--Devil's Advocate v. Zurich Insurance

Most of us probably have never thought about the coprightability of our resumes or curriculum vitae. Most resumes are highly functional documents, i.e., we don’t write them for fun; and they are just an input into a more important output…