Is this libel ? Harrassment? Or something else?

[namechangerforlegaladvice]

I was called in as a witness in a court case a couple of years ago.

During the hearing i disclosed my address, occupation and that of my family. I understood that it was a closed hearing and that these details would not be published.

The plaintiff has now published on his website my address details, my dc names, a defamatory judgement on my career, false information about my nationality, my parents names, addresses, their occupation etc... There is further false information regarding other family members adding up to character assassination.

This all comes up third in a web search under my name, despite having built up a long list of positive hits which i need, as I work as a freelancer.

My family doesn't really have money for a solicitor. It has been quite hurtful, as I have only met this person twice years ago in passing, and have very little to do with his court case at all.

I contacted Liberty, and they said that as my private details had been disseminated by an individual rather than a corporation, there was little they could do. Their advice was to contact the plaintiff's website server and ask if they could remove it. I don't know that without backing of a solicitor that the server provider would take off the content of one of their customers.

I feel let down, and find it hard to believe that what he has done is legal.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

If it was a civil case then I suggest you consult a solicitor to see if there is anything you can do.

Why would they publish stuff?

Is there facility to comment on their website?

This happened to a friend of mine and she got an injunction against him to stop him publishing any further stuff on the web. It was a world wide injunction - he broke it of course and a few years later ended up in prison because of it, but he was clearly mentally ill.

I'm not sure how useful this info will be to you however, as he also published untrue and mad stuff about a housing association and its officers, and they were funding the litigation, my friend was added as one of the plaintiffs.

It was in the High court and so I imagine it was very expensive and I also imagine you are unlucky to get costs from anyone disturbed enough to publish mad stuff on the web.

I do think that my friend over reacted a bit - I appreciate it upset her to google her name and have this stuff come up, but is was so mad I don't think anyone would ever have taken it seriously.

But you do have the option of an injunction, but it is likely to be expensive.

sorry, 'unlikely' not unlucky

Can you contact the court for their advice?

If the court had ruled that such info was to remain anonymous, the person may be in breach of the court's ruling.

scurry, there's no facility for comment on his website, though I wouldn't want to complicate the matter any further by communicating directly with him.

I'm sorry to hear that your friend went through all of that, Spero. An injunction would be very costly, and as you say, I believe we wouldn't see any of our costs as I think the plaintiff used most of his savings on his previous court case. It may well come down to deciding whether to spend our savings to get our details off the internet and connected with this man, or living with it and doing our best to ignore it. Though I hate the thought of my dc's name and address being out there for anyone to look up.

Dinghy, I'll give the court a call tomorrow and see what they can advise. It didn't occur to me that I could contact them directly rather than through a solicitor.

Big thanks all.

you might not have much luck contacting the court - the staff can help with filling in forms etc but they can't give legal advice.

I think the best advice is to try and deal with the internet service provider; they can be quite helpful but of course there is nothing to stop him just setting up a website again somewhere else.

Or go to a CAB and see what they can do to help? If he is doing this to others (which seems likely) you might be able to band together and share the costs of applying for and enforcing an injunction.

Why dont you ask someone to send an E-mail to the person publishing the details requesting them to remove the false information.

Contact the court to ask what were the original reporting restrictions orders made in the case, so you know where you are in terms of whether he has breached a court order. If he has, include that fact (and a copy of the order) in any letter to the ISP.

ISPs don't always or even usually require court orders before they will take things down. Yours sounds like the kind of clear cut case where they could be quite reasonable. Even if they require an order they don't usually appear to court to argue against you having one.

In any letter to the ISP do say that you are giving them notice of your complaint and they will now be liable for the offending content, should they fail to take it down within a reasonable time, under the EU Electronic Commerce Regulations. You will need to set out what you say is false and damaging about what has been published and summarise all your grounds of objection (misuse of your private information, for example).

If that doesn't work and you do need legal help, try the Law Society or Bar Pro Bono Unit for help getting free legal advice.

Good luck.

Hi namechanger

Sorry to hear you are in this situation.

Firstly, you need to think whether or not legal action will be effective or not. Basically, whether this person will ignore a court order or go to a different ISP if you start responding.

Secondly, you need to think about why you are uncomfortable about having your DCs address on the internet. It isn't very nice, but on the other hand, if I was searching for a freelancer and your name came up in that context, together with comments about your children and family, I would assume it was someone who was a bit unhinged and discount it. A carefully worded and reasonable criticism of your work is much more damaging imo.

If you want to go ahead, there are a few options you could consider.

You could ring the Information Commissioner and see if they have any advice.
You could check whether or not you have legal expenses insurance which would cover this. Legal expenses insurance is often included in the small print of your home, car, credit card or travel insurance policies.

You could consider mediation if this person would agree to it. Centre for Justice www.centreforjustice.org has a process which combines mediation with binding arbitration, which is very cost-effective. If you cannot agree a settlement in mediation then the assessor will make a binding arbitral award.

Sean Humber, at Leigh Day & Co, www.leighday.co.uk , is a solicitor with a special interest in breach of confidence cases.

I would at least try a scary letter from a solicitor to the person who put the info up. Fair enough if you don't want to go to the expense of a court case, but the person doesn't necessarily know that.