Disbarred Attorney Sues Guy Who Posted Articles About Him on Facebook
If you get into an argument on Facebook with disbarred Houston attorney Bill Satterwhite, you better not post any news stories about Bill Satterwhite, disbarred attorney, or else he'll sue your ass for libel.
A guy named Steve Akin found that out in April, when he and Satterwhite got into a heated political debate on a mutual friend's Facebook page. Akin ultimately posted links to Houston Press and Houston Chronicle articles about Satterwhite's 2010 charge of falsely holding himself out as an attorney, his third charge for the same crime after losing his license in 1995. Akin says he wrote, "Is this you?" Satterwhite told Akin to remove the posts. He did not, but according to both men, the mutual friend removed the entire thread shortly thereafter.
Twenty-four hours later, Akin found himself sued. Specifically, Satterwhite says Akin "posted false and libelous information on Facebook" — a place where, everyone knows, false and libelous information is never posted. Satterwhite demanded $100,000, and he included an affidavit in which he says the Harris County District Attorney's Office once encouraged a drug dealer to kill Satterwhite. And we're of course absolutely sure that that's not false and libelous. No way.
Here's the deal: Satterwhite's license woes began in the early 1990s after he didn't pay his yearly State Bar dues on time and represented a client while his license had been temporarily suspended. This eventually wound up with the State Bar never reinstating the license. Satterwhite was convicted in 1995 of falsely holding himself out as a lawyer and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Read more: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/disbarred-attorney-sues-guy-who-posted-articles-about-him-on-facebook-7642988
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