LA Lawyer to check a gossip blog?

February 21, 2009 5:03 PM

I need a lawyer in Los Angeles to look over my gossip blog, can anyone recommend someone? I recently started running an anon gossip blog that covers my industry (not entertainment). I post blind items, things I "heard", etc.

I've always been very careful about what I post and how I say it, and I feel like I have a solid grasp of what's on the right side of the slander line (but doesn't everyone?). I also have a basic standard legal statement and disclaimer.

However, it's pretty clear from my stats and inbox that just about everyone in this very tight-knit industry is reading the blog, and additionally that I'm getting a lot of hits from law firms used by the very litigious main focus of the site. I haven't heard anything legal (or even negative) from anyone yet, but I expect it to come.

I want to get the blog reviewed by a lawyer with solid experience with this kind of thing, and also get some advice on protecting my sources etc. Can anyone suggest someone in LA for this? While I can probably not find the money to run things by a lawyer on a ongoing basis, I can find the money for a lawyer if I get in trouble, and I'd like to start a relationship with someone now, as well as making sure I'm on the right track with covering my ass.

Please don't say "you're so screwed", that's not a helpful answer!

Thanks.

posted by anonymous to law & government (7 comments total)

Have you looked into libel insurance?

USC's Annenberg School might be a good resource, in general.
posted by charmcityblues at 5:46 PM on February 21, 2009

Crazy Days And Nights is supposedly run by an entertainment lawyer. He might have some advice on running a gossip blog and being inside the law.
posted by The Whelk at 6:22 PM on February 21, 2009

Perhaps contacting one of the celeb sites like TMZ might help. I'm sure they have lawyers they know (of course, getting a reply is another story).
posted by jmd82 at 8:23 PM on February 21, 2009

TWiL 14: Blogger and Podcaster Liability

Boom!
posted by wastelands at 9:41 PM on February 21, 2009

If nobody has any specific and useful recommendations, virtually every state bar association has a referral service.

Information on California's can be found here.
posted by toomuchpete at 6:35 AM on February 22, 2009

TMZ is a lawyer. I don't mentoring would-be competitors is Harvey's style. And you aren't in that industry anyway.

Depending on what industry you ARE in, this might not involve just slander/libel and other law associated with journalism. It might involve, say, intellectual property law or financial regulation. If it does, you are tiptoeing through a minefield.

You may (probably will) have to pay for advice. Lawyers aren't operating charities or philosophy clubs.

If you can't afford that, the recommendations to contact a journalism school/organization or bloggers rights organization is probably best.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:07 AM on February 22, 2009

This site wasn't based in LA, but you might want to contact Ken Hensey at Steel Boss.com. A few years ago he ran a separate blog called "Bad Steel" which was a forum for folks in the business to name suppliers who went above and beyond as well as suppliers who sold secondary steel at primary prices. It also was a place for steel suppliers to list customers who were slow payers or who never paid. It was a handy tool while it lasted, but it suddenly disappeared, and from the little info I could divine after the fact is that some of the companies with bad reviews threatened (or perhaps actually pursued) legal action.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:23 AM on February 22, 2009