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From: drd@siia.mv.com (David Dick)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,news.admin
Subject: Re: slamming a company's products and/or marketing practices
Message-ID: <1990Feb28.223103.6604@siia.mv.com>
Date: 28 Feb 90 22:31:03 GMT
References: <1839@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> <7945@yunexus.UUCP>
Organization: Software Innovations, Inc.
Lines: 25

davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) writes:

>eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) writes:
>[in a discussion of threatened legal action for stating an opinion]
>  The term "vexatious litigation" comes to mind...  somehow these
>actions never seem to actually occur.  I suspect they're urban legends.
>  I can't comment on U.S. law,

Strategic Litigation Against Protesting People (I think that's how it
goes) or SLAPP suits are becoming very popular in the US.  They're
based on the idea that you can sue anyone who causes you financial
damage.  Most or all of them eventually get thrown out of court,
that is, those that make it that far.  Many, many of them get
settled out of court because the "speaker of truth" can't afford
the legal battle.

An example I seem to remember is of a doctor in California talking
about all the nasty diseases than can occur in raw milk; he was sued
by an association of "natural" milk producers that sell unpasteurized milk.

So, legal action for stating an opinion is not "urban legend", unfortunately.
Another anomaly in US justice.

David Dick
Software Innovations, Inc. [the Software Moving Company(sm)]