Friday, January 11, 2008

Airing Dirty Laundry: How Freely Can Divorcing Litigants Blog About Their Spouses?

A very interesting read indeed is the following article, from yesterday's New York Times: Blog Takes Failed Marriage Into Fight Over Free Speech - New York Times, by Abby Goodnough, January 10, 2008.

How freely can we speak about our spouses, our marriages, and the players in our divorce dramas? One divorce court in Vermont ordered a husband going through a divorce to take down "any and all Internet postings" about his wife and their marriage pending a hearing next week. But the husband, claiming his postings are constitutionally protected free speech, has apparently reacted with defiance. This New York Times story has already been cited by a few other blogs, at least one of which, the British blog Family Lore, has an interesting post here.

Excerpt from NYT article:
"....
The husband, William Krasnansky, posted what he calls a fictionalized account of the marriage on his blog late last year. His wife, Maria Garrido, complained to the judge overseeing their divorce, who ordered Mr. Krasnansky to take down 'any and all Internet postings' about his wife and their marriage pending a hearing next month.

Mr. Krasnansky, 51, says the order amounts to a prior restraint, a rare restriction of speech before publication, and a violation of his constitutional right to free speech. His lawyer, Debra R. Schoenberg of Burlington, Vt., has asked Judge Thomas Devine of Washington County Family Court to vacate the order and dismiss Ms. Garrido’s motion for immediate relief...."

For information about Massachusetts divorce and family law, see the Massachusetts Divorce & Family Law Page of my law firm website.

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