Threats Against the Blog

So we got a threat yesterday via email. Here's the full text of the email:

• Remove my court case from this blog. It has come to my attention that my court case under Jennifer Koniarski has been posted on your blog twice. My case is my business. It is violation of hipa law. I have a good source and knows who you are. I am giving you 24 hours to remove my court case or I will contact my attorney.

The basis for the complaint is a link posted in the comments section. Two comment sections actually:

• https://ilcourtsaudio.blob.core.windows.net/antilles-resources/resources/453b5da4-64d9-4c79-a248-8837e570586c/1200501_R23.pdf

The link - which is a PDF document - is a Illinois Appellate Court decision handed down two years ago regarding a lawsuit against the Pension Board regarding a termination of benefits.

Let us just highlight a few things:

• it is a lawsuit;
• filed in the courts - which are a branch of government;
• it is resolved by a three judge panel;
  
• as required by law, it is then published BY THE COURT in a public forum, accessible to anyone with a computer in any part of the world.....except Red China we suppose;
• it was posted by a reader without comment - no allegations, no identifying names aside from the open source link we posted above;
  

And now we're being threatened with....something? 

We did a quick search by name and case number, and this case is posted in dozens of places, public court records, legal research websites, you get the idea. It's out there.

So how about this instead: 

• We are giving YOU - Jennifer L McClendon/Koniarski - twenty-four hours to issue an apology to us. There are two ways for you to do this:
• You claim to know who we are, so we assume you know where we work and what shift we work. We'll be waiting at the desk for a phone call. You will ask for us by name, identify yourself, and apologize for this nonsense. Be prompt - half past the hour following Roll Call. We have calls to answer and our supervisor can be a bear;
• If that doesn't float your boat, you will email us an apology. You will state that your case is a matter of public record, filed with the courts and posted on government and legal websites, and acknowledge the blog has no control over this. You will state you really have no reason or means to order us to remove what is already publicly and prominently available to anyone who cares to look. You will properly use the word HIPAA;
• Failing both of these completely reasonable suggestions, we will take steps. Step One is to put that link at the top of EVERY SINGLE POST for a day, just so everyone decides to click on it and read it - it's only fourteen pages. Step Two will be to post it every week until we get bored.
• We won't comment on the merits of the case, the decision itself or any further appeals - we'll just post a publicly available court opinion made available by a branch of government in accordance with the Law in an effort to keep any and all interested parties informed....kind of a public service of sorts.
  

Can you imagine what the internet search algorithms will do? We used to get between thirty-and-fifty-THOUSAND unique visits every day from six continents before The Hiatus. Since we've been back, we're doing around half that traffic, but the numbers are going up every day.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

(comments will be heavily monitored here....HEAVILY monitored....we  might even shut 'em down)