Why I am reluctant to post court documents online, even though they are publicly accessible.
Hopefully, no one is offended by the lack of online documentation regarding the "Michael Zwebner v. John Does Anonymous Foundation" in Portland federal court. As many of you know, Zwebner has vowed to "shut down" the johndoes.org web site, and has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Foundation relating to the publication of critical remarks about Zwebner which were published by third parities on the JDA message board. The case was filed by Zwebner late last September, and is now in its early stages. The first major hearing takes place one week from today, February 23.
Part of the problem with publishing documents online is that the fact of publication, and the resulting comments by third parties, always seem to get brought before the judge in motions and hearings, particularly in the nasty warfare context of defamation lawsuits. Most judges have little tolerance for seeing these "he said she said" court room eruptions played out on the internet. In one case, a judge was strongly influenced against the defendant by something a third party published relating to court documents that the plaintiff had actually put on a message board. The prudent position is not to publish court documents online until AFTER the matter has been decided by the court.
Discovery which is taken out of full view of the court... that is, pre-evidence depositions, production, etc., should NEVER be published online. To do so jeopardizes the quality of the examination, and could easily result in a judge placing discovery under seal. The public does not normally have access to these materials.
I have published a copy of Zwebner's lawsuit, and his declaration to court in support of his motion for default judgment. The Foundation has a motion pending against Zwebner's motion, because he failed comply with the provisions of FRCP 60. Not much else is relevant at this time to publish online. The Zwebner documents can be found at internetzorro.com
Best regards,
Les |
