Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Virginia
Hello,
I am a REALTOR in Virginia. I often answer questions on www.Zillow.com and a
few days ago, I posted a discussion thread about the recently expended and
extended $8,000 and $6,500 tax credit for home buyers.
Many regulars on Zillow, some of them may be moderators, have a very
negative view of the tax credit and they blame realtors for the housing
bust, in general. One of them started name calling - although he supposedly
wrote a book, which was never published though - and should have known
better. I asked him not to use the guilt by association method, because I
and most REALTORS always put our client's best interests first and I
personally was licensed in 2006 after the housing boom thus by default
cannot be responsible for the housing decline, which was caused by subprime
mortgages, by the way.
So he started making the analogy about guilt by association by saying that
he is a student of Warren Jeffs.
Warren Jeff was a president of the fundamentalist Mormon church and was
convicted of child rape and incest and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
That poster/author said he met Warren Jeffs whom he considers one of his
teachers.
As a realtor I represent my broker, thus I did not want him to carry on that kind
of discussion on my thread, and I asked him to leave. I also tried to FLAG
his post, but somehow the flag did NOT work, although it should.
I did not want to be associated with this person and since the flag did not
work, I posted a thread explaining what this individual was doing - he was
basically highjacking my thread, which was about tax credit for his own sick
agenda.
From that time on, it became intolerable - eventually he apologized .... and
announced that he never met Warren Jeffs and was not a Mormon and only did
it as an "analogy" and for laughs...
But he continued posting in his defense and he asked others (possibly
moderators) on Zillow to join him. Together they opened a very negative
campaign against me as if the poster did nothing wrong and it was all my
fault. One of his supporters posted a telephone number to my broker and my
broker's name and asked everyone to call him.
This can be very damaging to my career - there are many people who visit
Zillow.
Not only that I have not done anything wrong, as I simply asked him to leave
since he insisted to be a follower of convicted child rapist, including
incest.
Yet, with the help of his friends, he blamed it on me, even though he
himself admitted that he lied and made up the story.
Their behavior endangered my career by creating a very negative atmosphere
and possibly cost me clients - not to mention my license, since a telephone
to my broker was posted in the open view inviting to make the phone calls -
clearly, this is physical and emotional harassment.
The person who posted the telephone number has real estate education,
although no license, and was fully aware of the consequences of posting my
broker's telephone number.
Also, Zillow is guilty of allowing it to happen, despite my complaints to
them.
I am looking for an attorney who is knowledgeable and sensitive to such issues to take this case,
and who is willing to be compensated as a percentage of the damages awarded.
Links to the threads:
http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/8-000-tax-credit-for-home-buyers-extended-and-expended/297413/
and
http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/NTETS-pushes-his-agendas-on-threads-he-claims-to-be-a-student-of-Warren-Jeffs-who-was/298182/
1 Answer from Attorneys
I doubt that what you've described would qualify as libel per se under Virginia defamation law and that even if you survived defendant's motion for summary judgment and were permitted to proceed to trial under regular libel law, that you would be able to recover damages of sufficient significance that would justify the time and expense involved in prosecuting your claim(s).