If It Ever Happened, It Always Happened
That’s sometimes what I say about the Internet and our recorded life. It’s not exactly poetic, and I’m not sure it defines what I want to say all that well. I’m simply trying to say: you cannot unwrite the past. You never could, completely, as we all live in a world we cannot control. But now, in this digital life, the past is right there. On a screen.
I’ve wondered how courts would rule on cases in which Internet sites publish things which courts later deem expunged. In Martin v. Hearst, we now know.
The publisher of arrest records, even if later deemed expunged or even if the arrest was deemed improper, is not liable for simply publishing the information.
Why? Because it happened. It happened. If it ever happened, it always happened.
Does it make damages for wrongful arrest more? Maybe.
InjuryLawyerDatabase publishes statistics on lawyers. If a lawyer is really a divorce lawyer, yet tells a potential client he is a personal injury lawyer, statistics will reveal otherwise. It’s about the statistics. Please note: simply because a profile appears on InjuryLawyerDatabase does not mean the lawyer holds him or herself out to be a personal injury lawyer. Attorneys did not control what profiles go on InjuryLawyerDatabase. ILD can be used to search statistics, however.
This is a new paradigm. Your history comes with you. It always did, but now it’s digital.