Garrido v. Bambauer [1]

Derek Bambauer, a law professor and legal blogger, wrote a series of posts about the Garrido v. Krasnansky [2] case on the blog Info/Law [3]. In one of the posts [4], Bambauer expressed an unflattering opinion about Ms. Garrido, who had obtained an order from a Vermont family court judge requiring her husband to remove posts about her and their marriage from his blog, LookAtMyPugs's Jurnull [5]. On January 16, 2008, Garrido, acting through her lawyer, sent Bambauer a cease-and-desist letter, in which she demanded that he remove the unflattering statement about her.

Bambauer refused to remove the statement. Instead, he explained in a parenthetical that Garrido's attorney disputed his opinion and posted a link to the letter. Garrido's attorney then faxed a letter to Dean Frank Wu of Wayne State University School of Law, the law school where Bambauer teaches. The second letter claimed that Bambauer's statement was "inappropriate and quite possibly defamatory" and requested Wu's assistance in getting Bambauer to remove it.

Bambauer has not removed the statement from his blog and has indicated that Dean Wu is "strongly supportive" of him on this issue. Ellwood has not taken any legal action on the matter.