Tag: Libel Tourism

Nova Scotia Supreme Court: Ignorant and damn proud of it.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court continues to lend aid and comfort to the disgraced Aaron Broussard’s unindicted co conspirators.

Folks this judgment is as worthless as the first as the Nova Scotia Courts double down on their ignorance as well as reinforce the province’s reputation for being Canada’s most backward. My quick math indicates I tied the previous record for worthless Nova Scotia defamation judgements which is fitting. I will have more on this a bit later.

This is exactly why Mississippi needs to pass House Bill 44 to give us more protection from libel terrorism havens such as Nova Scotia Canada:

Trout Point Lodge Ltd v Handshoe (2014 NSSC 62)

Trout Point Lodge Ltd v Handshoe (2014 NSSC 62)

“Big Victory In Effort To Curb Libel Tourism”

Compared to other countries, the United States has relatively narrow defamation laws. The First Amendment significantly restricts defamation claims, and legislatures have provided additional defendant protections such as 47 USC 230 and anti-SLAPP laws. To protect United States residents from being subject to the more expansive defamation laws of other countries, Congress enacted the SPEECH Act in 2010. The SPEECH Act says that defamation judgments from other countries can’t be enforced in the United States unless the ruling is consistent with U.S. law. Last week, in an important precedent-setting ruling, a federal appeals court blocked enforcement of a Canadian defamation judgment due to the SPEECH Act. Continue reading………..

SPEECH Act in the news as word spreads of my historic victory over Broussard’s boys (Updated)

For those of you not following Slabbed on twitter I have a couple of links. First up is the story from LexisNexis’ Law360.com (subscription required) that I think told it best. Here is a snippet:

“The Nova Scotia Court’s oral decision does not contain specific findings of fact with respect to the falsity of Handshoe’s statements,” the opinion said. “Trout Point could not identify a single specific allegation in the statement of claim that the Nova Scotia Court found was actually false.”

Jack E. Truitt, who represented Handshoe, told Law360 Friday that the appeals court decision makes it “almost impossible to get a defamation lawsuit judgment in Canada and come here and enforce it.”

“[The SPEECH Act] has been on the books since 2010, but this is the first widely reported decision on it,” Truitt said. “From the perspective of journalists, it should help you guys sleep a little easier.”

An attorney for Trout Point did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

I know I’ve slept better ever since Bobby signed up to defend Slabbed. Quality lawyers get quality decisions and I can’t say enough good things about the job he did. I was surprised to see the otherwise loquacious Henry Laird declining comment as he frequently comments on his cases locally.

This brings me to the second link as the case was also featured on UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh’s blog. Continue reading “SPEECH Act in the news as word spreads of my historic victory over Broussard’s boys (Updated)”

Trout Point Lodge, Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary remain repugnant to the US Constitution

I invite all of my media brothers and sisters to sleep well tonight under the blanket of freedom provided by Slabbed New Media, Bobby Truitt and yours truly. Click the pic to score the 25 page opinion.  I’ll have more a bit later.

Opinion Opinion

Goatherders Speak: Charles Leary admits he files SLAPP suits

I sent Andrew Speller some fan mail after the following story ran in Frank Magazine ran a few weeks ago. Click the pic to nab the 1 page pdf. Republished with permission:

Frank Magazine Story on Goatherders

Slabbed sends an open letter to Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Leon “Pierre” Muise

Via facsimile (902) 742-0678

February 6, 2013

Justice Leon Muise
Supreme Court of Nova Scotia
164 Main Street
Yarmouth, NS B5A 1C2

RE: Yarmouth Action #328248
Trout Point Lodge et al v Louisiana Media Company LLC

Dear Justice Muise:

On Friday January 18, 2013 I was contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding a security breach and/or hacking of my widely read legal affairs blog at www.slabbed.org by persons connected to or acting on behalf of targets of an ongoing Federal Investigation in post Hurricane Katrina political corruption on the Gulf Coast, specifically metro New Orleans. The above action is one of several defamation suits filed by Aaron Broussard’s American expatriate business managers in Canada1, Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret over minute details of their self-admitted business relationships and management of an entity that United States prosecutors would later describe as an elaborate bribery scheme.2  The United States District Court for Southern District of Mississippi would later describe these Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation lawsuits filed by Broussard’s Canadian based business agents as the practice of “libel tourism”.3

The purpose of this letter is to address the use of perjured affidavits by Charles Leary in the above captioned defamation suit filed before your court to invade the privacy of US Internet commenters commenting on a US political corruption scandal. Attached to this letter is a motion made by Charles Leary under your local rule 14 filed on April 26, 2011 seeking a court order to obtain the IP address of 4 commenters on my blog including myself. Mr. Leary claimed in the court filing and at a later hearing before your court in May, 2011 that I was an anonymous blogger, that he did not know my identity and needed a court order to determine such in order to file suit against me and 3 other Americans for defamation in Canada.

Also attached to this letter is an affidavit sworn in United States District Court by Mr. Leary in Yarmouth Nova Scotia dated July 25, 2012 submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in which Mr Leary swore:4

“On May 6, 2011, a process server named Chris Yount served a Notice of Intended Action directed to Doug Handshoe on Doug Handshoe’s wife at his residence in Bay St Louis, Mississippi.”

Less than two weeks later he was in your courtroom testifying he did not know the identity of the publisher of Slabbed. The effect of this was that I and 3 others were denied due process to contest Mr Leary’s wild accusations. Continue reading “Slabbed sends an open letter to Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Leon “Pierre” Muise”