internet defamation posting

[theretoo]

i am currently in the middle of a legal dispute with my former employer over discrimination, constructive discharge, etc.

this has been in the works for about 5 months now. the state notified the employer back in may of it's intent to investigate these claims. about a week ago i googled my name and found a disturbing posting on ripoffreport.com that provides my home address, claiming i am ripping off the state by claiming i was disabled, which is not in dispute with the state and i am proven to have a disability. the post, as i mentioned, included my home address, and a statement that i was not disabled, that i was ripping off the state of ca and that i was seriously psychologically impaired. i am unemployed after being termed while i was out on disability and this posting will probably impact my ability to find another job at this point as a lot of employers do research employees and prospective employees on line.
i printed and faxed the posting to the state employment investigator and asked if they would subpoena or in some way try to determine who posted it and where it came from, as it obviously had to come from within my former employer from someone who would have access to my full name and home address, etc. i am also trying to bring an enmployment law atty on board to work with the state in the investigation of the employment matters.
my question is, what is the best way try to retrieve this information from ripoffreport.com. that state or employment law atty should be able to have them get what info they can from their hard drives for the case, i would think.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

If you have an attorney, you should speak to him/her. There unfortunately is no easy way to tell who posted what on a third party web site. You will probably need an information subpoena (issued pursuant to a case that has been filed) in order to obtain basic information. It may not be useful, hard to say. Frequently registration data is phony, such as name and address and phone if requested, and email might not be associated with your defendant. Still, it's worth a try. You may also request the IP address for the registered user, which might be kept on file and usually very difficult to trace. Doing it on your own isn't always so simple for these issues. Good luck.

 

[theretoo]

here in ca, the state is handling the investigation of my employer and they have the ability to subpoena what is needed, and i believe that is the stage it is in right now with the state. i am working on bringing an employment law atty on board to work with the state investigator. i asked the state investigator to subpoena the information if possible as it may be a factor in the case but i have not heard back from her as to that is within her ability/authority to do or if she thinks it is worthwhile. thanks for your reply

 

[Michael Wechsler]

If the state is investigating, you want them to do that work first. It's free evidence/discovery done on someone else's dime. I'm sure your attorney will probably feel the same way.