Agoracom Blog

Stock Forum Poster Tagged $425,000 For Defamation

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:51 PM on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Next time you want to bash a small-cap public company, make sure you stick to the facts.  As Robert Butler just discovered, the penalty for posting defamatory / libellous statements could run you as high as $425,000 and a whole pile of legal costs.

GREAT NEWS FOR SMALL-CAP STOCKS

This is great news for small-cap companies.  For too long, they have been the victim of unrelenting stock bashing via libellous statements.  Shareholders of these companies also suffer from market cap erosion brought on by such attacks over a long period of time.  I can’t tell you how many CEO’s of legitimate small-cap companies have been driven to distress over false and misleading internet board statements about themselves or their companies.

Unfortunately, most small-cap companies don’t have the financial or human resources to go after such people.  It’s a long, expensive and distracting process that doesn’t assure any satisfaction even if successful because you may win against someone with little or no means to satisfy judgement.  How many small-caps have the resources necessary to take on this kind of fight?

Hunter Dickinson does.  As you can see, Farallon is a Hunter Dickinson company – and they have all the resources necessary for just such transgressions.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SMALL-CAP STOCKS

The Farallon press release sums it up best:

“This is amongst the highest awards of its kind in Canada and will hopefully restrain others from issuing unfounded defamatory statements against companies that are trying to legitimately create value for shareholders, stakeholders and mining communities around the world.”

Thanks HD.  Small-cap investors and pubco’s owe you a world of thanks for injecting a big pause into unscrupulous message board posters that will think twice about attacking small-cap companies and their shareholders.

Regards,
George

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