On December 28, 2012, the Virginia Supreme Court quickly vacated a Fairfax Circuit Court Order that enjoined a litigant from maintaining past accusative postings online and from posting again during the pending lawsuit. The unpublished opinion in Record No. 122157, Perez v. Dietz Development, LLC, expressly finds inter alia “the preliminary injunction was not justified”.
The Virginia Supreme Court’s Perez ruling – issued only 2 days after the appeal pursuant to Va. Code Ann. 8.01-626 – vindicates the propriety of Mr. Waterman posting contemporaneous case developments on this Blog. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, 3 medical malpractice Defendants – including Sentara and Riverside Hospital, Inc. – unsuccessfully have tried to deny Mr. Waterman’s state and federal rights of “free speech” online in a wrongful death, a patient fall, and another case through Circuit Courts in Suffolk, York, and Newport News.
In Perez, the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) of Virginia at www.acluva.org and the Public Citizen at www.citizen.org appealed the injunction Order as violating the First Amendment of the United States Constitution in addition to Virginia state law. Since Riverside Hospital, Inc.’s attempt to abridge Mr. Waterman’s Constitutional rights of “free speech” was in November, 2012, in the still-pending brain injury lawsuit, he yet may call upon ACLU of Virginia and Public Citizen to intercede on the topic.
