Internet defamation (calling person "fraud" & "con artist") cost $11.3 mil

[papau]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_INTERNET_DEFAMATION_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Oct 11, 5:18 PM EDT

Jury awards $11.3 million in Florida Internet defamation case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A jury has awarded $11.3 million in damages to the head of a children's services referral company, after she was called a "con artist" and "fraud" in Internet messages posted by a Louisiana woman.

The award on Sept. 19 for Sue Scheff of suburban Weston, founder of Parent's Universal Resource Experts Inc., is among the largest ever for a lawsuit claiming Internet defamation, according to legal analysts and attorneys involved in the case.

"Just because you don't like someone or what they do, it does not give you carte blanche to post false statements about a person on the Internet," Scheff said this week.

The $11.3 million judgment, which includes $5 million in punitive damages, was awarded Sept. 19 for Scheff in her 2003 lawsuit against Carey Bock, of Mandeville, La. Bock, who did not show up for the trial, had posted the negative messages on an Internet site used by parents with troubled children at boarding schools.<snip>