From Internet To Court?

Question

So my friend has a small website for her and her friends, and there's was a girl on it (17 year old) who didn't get along with her and was real mean and everything, then my friend found out this person was pretending to be several different people so put up a page on the website saying she was a faker and everything, but then took it down and the entire website. Now this other girl says if she doesn't get an apology for it she is taking the girl to court (they like approx 6500km away from each other, and have never met in their lives, they literally just know each others screen names) this other girl was told by my friend she cant bring her to court over that? But nope the girl suing says she has a case because she spoke to her father and spoke to her lawyer.

Is there any chance she could possible sue her? Do court cases deal with 17 year old girls scorned these days?

Answer 1

I'm not a lawyer so this is just personal opinion based on some legal facts. You don't say which country this took place in but I'm guessing it's not the United States since you say they live 6500km away from each other.

Most countries have two kinds of legal systems: criminal and civil. In the US, criminal cases are filed by a county or district attorney  An ordinary citizen cannot just walk into a court and file a criminal case. So it's highly unlikely the website owner would be facing criminal charges.

But civil cases can be filed by anyone and there's no screening process to say if the case is frivolous or not.  If someone has the money to pay for filing fees, the case will usually be accepted by the courts for a hearing. During the pre-trial hearings the accused can raise issues of frivolity, capriciousness, spuriousness, etc and the court might agree and dismiss the case without it ever going to trial.  But there are no guarantees.

This website lists some real cases that went to trial.... and the suing party won.

http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/...

I don't think your friend has to worry.  But a lot of people have been sued for a lot less and that's scary.  If she is sued, she should hire an attorney to represent her.  

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