Will You Sue Me Because You Read My Blog?
Advertising tip from Legal Blog Watch
Chances are, most lawyers paid little attention to this news story on a recent New York Appellate Division decision, Stern v. Bluestone, upholding a $21,000 award against an attorney who faxed unsolicited law reports on legal malpractice issues to other lawyers.After all, in 2008, fax machines are going the way of the typewriter, with most faxed lawyer reports now replaced by electronic newsletters, or even blogs. But if you thought that Stern v. Bluestone only applies to faxes, you'd be wrong -- because the majority's reasoning may have serious, adverse implications for lawyers who blog.
In Stern v. Bluestone, attorney Peter Marc Stern sued Andrew Lavoott Bluestone for allegedly faxing fourteen unsolicited "Attorney Malpractice Reports" to a fax machine in Stern's office between 2003 and 2005, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).
The TCPA provides in relevant part that "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, ... to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send, to a telephone facsimile machine, an unsolicited advertisement."
The TCPA includes certain exceptions, e.g., where the recipient voluntarily made his fax number available for transmissions or has an established business relationship with the sender.
But other than satisfying one of these exceptions, a sender can evade the TCPA by showing that the faxed transmission is unsolicited, or is not an advertisement.
Very amusing -yet another reason create a legal blog newspaper.
