Psychiatrist Bitterly Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Redditors

from the EVEN-THOUGH-I-AM-100%-IN-THE-RIGHT,-I-AM-WALKING-AWAY-ANGRILY dept

Dr. Douglas Berger, an American psychiatrist offering services to ex-pats in Japan, recently sued a bunch of Redditors for telling other Redditors to steer clear of his services. Berger's lawsuit was exhaustive, covering several months of disparaging comments delivered by Redditors, but much of what Berger considered libel fell under the category of "protected opinion."

Berger's ultimate goal appeared to be a revamp of his Google search results. Sitting ahead of multiple URLs linked to Berger and his Japanese business (many which appear to be owned by Berger himself) were links to multiple Reddit threads with unhelpful (for Berger anyway…) titles like "Stay away from 'psychiatrist' Doug Berger." In these threads, Berger was accused of everything from a lack of attentiveness during sessions to harassment to dodging income taxes.

It wasn't pretty, but Berger's lawsuit was even uglier. Berger wanted a court to unmask multiple anonymous Redditors, while offering up little more than his opinions about opinions. While there were a few marginally-actionable statements listed in the lawsuit, Berger targeted every Redditor who'd ever said anything less than favorable about him.

The Redditors put together a fundraising page for legal fees and secured the help of Marc Randazza. The good news is most of this is now unnecessary.

After realizing what the defendants knew from the beginning - that he had absolutely no standing to sue anonymous internet commenters in Florida - Dr. Douglas Berger, who is not currently licensed to practice medicine in any US state, has withdrawn his lawsuit. While the group are disappointed that the court system was not given a proper chance to reject Dr. Berger's SLAPP tactics, they are grateful to the Randazza Legal Firm for their counsel and hard work on the case. The group's final legal bills are not expected to exceed $5000, and the goal of this campaign has been updated to reflect that. Any amount donated above the $5000 goal will be donated to TELL JP.

Berger's dismissal [PDF] -- without prejudice, unfortunately -- is short, but it's anything but sweet. It only runs two paragraphs but each word is coated with the grit of Dr. Berger's tooth enamel.

Pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.420, Plaintiffs Douglas Berger and Meguro Counseling Center (collectively "Plaintiffs") voluntarily dismisses all claims against Defendant John Doe and Nominal/Relief Defendant Reddit Inc. without prejudice, each party bearing its own costs and fees. Plaintiffs' dismissal is submitted after preliminary discovery has raised questions about the proper jurisdiction to litigate the acerbic, irrational, and highly defamatory statements which have been published about him on the Internet. This dismissal does not reflect in any way upon the merits of Plaintiffs' undoubtfully legitimate claims under applicable law, his likelihood of success upon the merits, or the compensable damages for which he will seek recovery upon his re-filing.

Whew. That's a read. So, there are questions about jurisdiction, what with Berger living in Japan and the Redditors living… wherever. Tacked to the end is a threat to refile, as if the jurisdictional questions will somehow resolve themselves without Berger finding out where these Redditors reside. It could be Berger is planning to take his complaint to the Japanese judicial system (as noted by a commenter here and apparently stated by Berger himself) where it might be easier to win, but far more difficult to find people to win against. Japanese law treats defamation differently, allowing factual statements that harm someone's reputation to be treated as defamatory.

Good to know the truth is always a defense, right? Well, in Japanese libel and slander cases, the truth won't necessarily help you. Instead, it all comes down to reputation. [...] Even if a published statement is 100% true, it can still be considered defamatory if it irrevocably hurts the subject's reputation and oftentimes the question of truth doesn't really enter the equation. For example, in 2012 a Japanese man discovered that when he put his name into the Google search bar, it autocompleted results that implied he had a criminal record, and this man argued these autocomplete search results were severely damaging his reputation. Some sources strongly implied this man really did have a criminal past, others said that he was innocent. But it didn't really matter either way—the Japanese court ordered Google to remove the autocomplete terms, which they did.

On the other hand, discovery will be a bit more difficult.

Compared to the United States, which employs one of the most extensive discovery systems in the world, Japan’s rules governing the collection of evidence seem woefully inadequate. Modeled after German civil procedure rules, most evidence production in Japan takes place at trial. Authority and control over the gathering of evidentiary facts is vested in the court, with the judge assuming the primary responsibility for taking and receiving evidence. Japanese attorneys have no real power to compel the production of evidence or to elicit testimony from either adverse parties or third parties, and must therefore rely on voluntary cooperation or seek intervention by the court. This is in stark contrast to U.S. discovery, which is conducted mostly by the parties themselves with only minimal court supervision.

If Berger can't unmask Redditors prior to filing, it's going to be more difficult for him to pursue them in Japan. The Japanese system aligns with Berger's take on what is or isn't defamation, but a lack of defendants makes pursuing this overseas a dead end. Reddit has no offices in Japan so the court would have to ignore jurisdictional limits to compel production of identifying info, possibly leaving him without a defendant to sue.

For the moment, the case is dormant. Randazza will likely jump back in if needed, but Berger may be realizing suing users of an influential social sharing site has only made more unflattering links appear in his vanity searches.

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Filed Under: anonymity, criticism, defamation, douglas berger, free speech, japan, reviews, slapp

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