High Court sinks to new low

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Tuesday November 21, 2006 03:09 by Keith Harris - Newsmedianews 0044 7716 737522

Don't talk about your lawyer - they'll sue

The High Court has told a Co Clare man accused of being responsible for a website which encourages people to rate their lawyers that he could be jailed for four months if certain materials are not removed from the site by Thursday.

Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan told John Gill from Drumline in Newmarket on Fergus that if all material relating to barrister Jayne Maguire was not removed from the website, www.rate-your-solicitor.com, by Thursday afternoon, he would jail him.

Ms Maguire is suing Mr Gill for libel. She says defamatory messages about her were posted on the website and she says Mr Gill is the administrator of the site.

Mr Gill denies being responsible for the site.

During the hearing a snort was heard from one of Mr Gill's supporters.

When one supporter told Mr Justice Finnegan 'the cat' had made the noise, he was fined €10,000 for contempt of court.

Mr Gill told the court he would make every effort to have the material removed.

He said he and his supporters would put an ad in the national newspapers in an effort to find out who was responsible for the site

Curiously:

Registration Service Provided By: NFSN, LLC
Contact: +888.7414678

Domain Name: RATE-YOUR-SOLICITOR.COM

Registrant:
Center for Free Expression
Mihails Pietkevics (email@rate-your-solicitor.com)
Maza Klijanu 1-4
Riga
-,LV 1012
LV
Tel. +371.28361899

Creation Date: 25-Sep-2006
Expiration Date: 25-Sep-2008

Domain servers in listed order:
ns.phx1.nearlyfreespeech.net
ns.phx2.nearlyfreespeech.net

Administrative Contact:
Center for Free Expression
Mihails Pietkevics (email@rate-your-solicitor.com)
Maza Klijanu 1-4
Riga
-,LV 1012
LV
Tel. +371.28361899

Technical Contact:
Center for Free Expression
Mihails Pietkevics (email@rate-your-solicitor.com)
Maza Klijanu 1-4
Riga
-,LV 1012
LV
Tel. +371.28361899

Billing Contact:
Center for Free Expression
Mihails Pietkevics (email@rate-your-solicitor.com)
Maza Klijanu 1-4
Riga
-,LV 1012
LV
Tel. +371.28361899

Status:LOCKED
Note: This Domain Name is currently Locked. In this status the domain
name cannot be transferred, hijacked, or modified. The Owner of this
domain name can easily change this status from their control panel. This
feature is provided as a security measure against fraudulent domain name hijacking.

Oh well.