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July 9, 2015- The Post reports on a story about the futility of defamation suits against bloggers, “A 1010 WINS news anchor and his wife must pay $225,000 in legal fees for their failed New Jersey defamation case against their blogging Hoboken neighbors, the trial judge has ruled.
In suing two local bloggers for defamation, the couple utterly failed to prove any damage to either reputation or livelihood, the judge said in a written decision.
“The Court finds Plaintiffs must reimburse Defendants for the litigation costs of suing first and thinking later,” the judge wrote.
Throughout the case, the Bajardi’s misrepresented facts to their own lawyers and the court, the judge wrote, adding, “Plaintiffs’ conduct throughout this case at a minimum demonstrates bad faith, and approaches a fraud upon the Court.”
The Bajardis had claimed in their $2 million lawsuit that Hoboken zoning board member Nancy Pincus and another local blogger, Roman Brice, defamed them in posts to the Hoboken Patch and Grafixavenger.blogspot.com during 2011 and 2012.
Almost all of the alleged defamations had been tossed last year for being too old, or mere opinions or exaggerations.
The remaining four defamation counts — accusing the anchor of being anti-Semitic and conspiring to steal emails that had been sent to Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer — were dismissed by the judge at trial in February.”