Attorney For the Offense

With the ominous warning "Watch out, Reason editors–your comment section is a potential legal liability!" reader Mark Bonacquisti alerts us to this Slashdot discussion about attorney Stephen Galton's lawsuit against Yahoo. Galton has taken offense at comments directed at him and an unnamed client on Yahoo's message boards:

One user, a person using the screen name "mumioler" who had posted the original messages about Galton's client that started the dispute, wrote a series of new messages calling Galton a "shyster" and an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

Sounds like a fair description of a lawyer (huh huh). Galton charges Yahoo with unfairly protecting negative commenters and not preventing message board abuse. He is trying to interest other California victims of saucy talk in a class action suit and is seeking "restitution, a permanent injunction and other forms of relief." Full Reuters story.