Friday, June 15, 2007

Tim Ball Folds


Or as DeSmogBlog put it Ball Bails.

The self-styled Canadian climate change expert, Dr. Tim Ball, has abandoned his libel suit against University of Lethbridge Professor of Environmental Science Dan Johnson. . . .

Johnson said he is now considering whether to accept basic costs or to seek special costs, adding, “I also deserve an apology. I think the nation deserves an apology.”
This, hopefully, is the beginning of the end for denialist SLAPP suits.
A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation ("SLAPP") is a form of litigation filed by a large organization or in some cases an individual plaintiff, to intimidate and silence a less powerful critic by so severely burdening them with the cost of a legal defense that they abandon their criticism
For too long they have used their financial support to suppress those who disagree with them. Balls suit was just another in a long line of such actions which started with S. Fred Singer's suit against Justin Lancaster.

Best wishes to Dan Johnson and here is hoping he makes Ball sweat.

UPDATE: More links at Dan's web site

4 comments:

M.J. S. - (Wacki) said...

Nice inclusion of the wikipedia SLAPP page.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, Johnson will seek damages totaling hundreds of thousands.

That might make Ball's balls a little sweaty.

Brian said...

California has pretty good anti-SLAPP legislation, as discussed in the wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP#California

Other places should think about similar provisions, although it wouldn't have applied to Ball's nonsense though.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, like "Judge Judy" sometimes favors right wingers -- ie, in small claims court.