Kathleen Seidel and her excellent Neurodiversity blog have become victims of crude legal intimidation. Read about it here. This is a prime example of what Americans call a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Peoples’ Participation).
She has been subpoenaed to appear in the case of Sykes v. Bayer – a $20,000,000 personal injury case in New Hampshire – despite having no connection to either side in the case,
The Sykes’ lawyers have demanded not only her presence but also details of her links with numerous other bloggers listed on the sidebar of her blog, her personal financial details, and the religious affiliations of herself and the people with whom she has dealings.
So why has she come to the attention of these scum-sucking lawyers and why do they demand this irrelevant personal information? A clue might be found in the nature of her website http://neurodiversity.com/. It is a site for those on the Aspergers/autism spectrum but rejects the connection between autism and vaccines and thus has attracted the ire of the “mercury militia” – American anti-vaxxers.
It would thus appear to be the next stage in the anti-vaccination crowd’s attempts to silence those with whom they disagree. I have already pointed out how JABS censor their website and ban those who hope to inject a little rationality into their debates. Obviously the American anti-vaccination brigade cannot abide the fact that their arguments are being countered anywhere at all and are seeking to tie Ms Seidel up in legal knots. What other motivation can there be for this irrelevant and malicious subpoena?
JABS have been silent on this issue but if they had any sense they would be clamouring in Kathleen Seidel’s defence. The UK offers far less statutory protection of personal privacy and civil liberty than does the US so if the Sykes’ lawyers get away with this, the pharmaceutical industry will be most interested. How would Jackie Fletcher like Big Pharma trawling through her personal financial details?
Tags: anti-vaxxers, JABS, Kathleen Seidel, legal chill, neurodiversity blog, SLAPP
April 4, 2008 at 5:04 pm |
I like the blog, the more publicity this gets the better, but maybe you can change her name to Seidel, rather than Siedel.
April 4, 2008 at 7:07 pm |
Thanks for commenting on this.
I am one of the 100+ bloggers mentioned in item 5 of the subpoena.
I am keeping a running list of responses to the Seidel subpoena at I Speak of Dreams. I’ve added your blog.
April 4, 2008 at 8:21 pm |
Thanks for pointing that out lexmith. Corrected.
April 5, 2008 at 12:17 am |
As I just posted in my own blog: as more evidence of just what a cheap hatchet-job Shoemaker has pulled, it turns out that the list in item #5 is nothing but a cut-and-paste of Kathleen’s side-bar blogroll.
April 5, 2008 at 3:56 am |
It seems outrageous that Seidel should have to produce all her correspondence with anybody about the Sykes case, her bank accounts, etc. It would seem to indicate that there is no such thing as fair comment, make a remark about somebody one day, explain it in court the next day.
I’ve been watching Jabs expecting some kind of obnoxious comment on the Seidel case but nothing so far.They are wrapped up in their own little world and feel totally vindicated by the media kerfuffle over the Poling concession in the US.
July 13, 2008 at 1:31 pm |
You may find Seidel’s two latest posts of interest.
Billing the Adversary
http://www.neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/165
Numerous decisions issued over the twenty year history of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) document the extent to which the limits on attorney compensation have been tested by practitioners seeking remuneration from its taxpayer-financed coffers. The following review summarizes decisions involving the recently-sanctioned VICP specialist Clifford Shoemaker, Esq. — a central instigator of the campaign to convince the public of the speculative, scientifically unsupported hypothesis that a significant number of cases of autism result from vaccine injury, co-founder of the Institute for Chronic Illnesses, and a founding member its Institutional Review Board, which sponsors and provides ethical oversight of medical research and experimentation on autistic children and adolescents conducted by his long-time colleague Dr. Mark Geier.
Inspecting the Outstretched Palm
http://neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/166/
The potential for procedural and billing improprieties by Vaccine Injury Compensation Program petitioners’ attorneys — especially those representing numerous clients with similar, speculative claims — is made painfully evident in Special Master Denise Vowell’s recent fee and cost decision in Carrington v. HHS, Case 99-495V (Fed.Cl.Spec.Mstr., June 18, 2008) (unpublished), posted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims website three days ago.
October 17, 2008 at 11:54 am |
The Vaccination Hoax
http://whale.to/vaccines/note.html
October 17, 2008 at 10:59 pm |
Hahaha
Have you never heard of Scopies Law, antivax?
That link is just a paranoid rant linking to more paranoid rants. It’s not even wrong.
In future, if you have something to say, then say it. Don’t just post links without comment otherwise I might suspect you’re trolling. Or spamming.