Legal Question in Technology Law in Connecticut

Re: false comments on a forum

First off, you can notify the administrator of the site or service where the list is maintained and insist that they delete the offending message. There is a very good chance that they will comply.

You can also demand that the author retract his statement publicly by posting it in a very conspicuous way on the same board. He may not want to do this, but if you explain that your subsequent lawsuit will seek a much larger damages award if the message remains up then he might see things differently.

If these steps don't resolve matters in a way that satisfies you, then you can sue him for defamation. If he has assets, this could be a worthwhile pursuit. If he is broke, then suing him probably will cause you much more grief than it is worth.

One final point -- if you do take him to court, you should hire a lawyer to at least help you write the complaint. I generally recommend that parties have a lawyer represent them throughout the case, but if the dollar amount here is small than getting an attorney may be impractical. The problem is that unless you draft your complaint in the right way you might end up making your entire sexual history fair game for discovery and for use in trial. A bit of money spent on a lawyer up front is probably worth the embarassment you will save yourself later on.

Good luck.