IT Service Management Forum USA v. Prunty [1]

IT Service Management Forum USA [2] (ITSMF), a nonprofit organization supporting IT professionals, filed a defamation lawsuit against its former executive director, James Prunty, alleging that he attempted to discredit the organization by posting comments on the IT Skeptic [3] blog under the fictitious name "Julie M. Linden, Ph.D."

According to an article in Computerworld [4], ITSMF filed defamation and breach of fiduciary duty claims in California state court based on comments [5] made by "Julie Linden" that accused ITSMF of rigging its online election of board members. The comments also impugned the integrity of the organization and suggested that people should distance themselves from it.

ITSMF initial filed its complaint against Linden, and on January 7, 2008 sought an ex parte order from the court granting it permission to conduct expedited discovery in the case.  The court granted ITSMF's request that same day. Apparently as a result of that discovery, ITSMF filed an amended complaint on June 4, 2008, adding Prunty as a defendant.