Blogger unmasked, court case upended

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/31/blogger_unmasked_court_
case_upended/

Blogger unmasked, court case upended
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff  |  May 31, 2007

It was a Perry Mason moment updated for the Internet age.

As Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in
Suffolk Superior Court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit
involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, the opposing counsel startled
him with a question.

Was Lindeman Flea?

Flea, jurors in the case didn't know, was the screen name for a blogger who
had written often and at length about a trial remarkably similar to the one
that was going on in the courtroom that day.

In his blog, Flea had ridiculed the plaintiff's case and the plaintiff's
lawyer. He had revealed the defense strategy. He had accused members of the
jury of dozing.

With the jury looking on in puzzlement, Lindeman admitted that he was, in
fact, Flea.

The next morning, on May 15, he agreed to pay what members of Boston's
tight-knit legal community describe as a substantial settlement -- case
closed.

The case is a startling illustration of how blogging, already implicated in
destroying friendships and ruining job prospects, could interfere in other
important arenas. Lawyers in Massachusetts and elsewhere, some of whom
downloaded Flea's observations and posted them on their websites, said the
case has also prompted them to warn clients that blogs can come back to
haunt them.

Still, Andrew C. Meyer Jr., a well known Boston personal injury lawyer who
followed the case, said he had never heard of a defendant blogging during a
trial.

"Most of us investigate whatever prior writings our clients might have had,
so they are not exposed to their inconsistencies in their testimony," said
Meyer, who has begun warning clients against the practice. "But it's
impossible to do if you don't know that your client is blogging under an
assumed name."

Neither Lindeman nor his lawyer, Paul R. Greenberg, would comment. Vinroy
Binns, the father of Jaymes Binns, of Dorchester, who died of complications
from diabetes in 2002, also declined to comment.

...

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