|
Publishers and broadcasters regularly face claims arising out of their efforts to gather news and other information. Subjects of news reports and others affected by the dissemination of information sue journalists and their employers based on their use of investigative tools such as hidden cameras, “ride-alongs” with police, and even basic reporting techniques like recording interviews and searching the Internet. The kinds of claims asserted run the gamut across tort, statutory and contract law, including invasion of privacy, trespass, violation of wiretap laws, breach of contract, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and many others.
LSKS attorneys are seasoned veterans of these cases, and two of the firm’s partners, Lee Levine and Seth Berlin, are co-authors of the authoritative treatise on the subject, Newsgathering and the Law (LEXIS Law Publishing 3d ed. 2005).
Indeed, LSKS attorneys have successfully defended some of the most significant news and information-gathering cases. For example, LSKS was retained to represent the media defendants in Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001), when that case reached the United States Supreme Court. In that case, a source had, unbidden, given the media defendants a recording of a cell phone conversation between two union officials in which they appeared to be advocating violence as a negotiating tactic. The Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle that the press is entitled to convey such newsworthy information to the public, regardless of whether the source may have violated state or federal wiretapping laws in obtaining the recording.
Click here for a sample of some of the cases LSKS lawyers have handled, organized geographically.
|
