Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Virginia

Hello,

I am a REALTOR in Virginia. I often answer questions on www.Zillow.com and a

few days ago, I posted a discussion thread about the recently expended and

extended $8,000 and $6,500 tax credit for home buyers.

Many regulars on Zillow, some of them may be moderators, have a very

negative view of the tax credit and they blame realtors for the housing

bust, in general. One of them started name calling - although he supposedly

wrote a book, which was never published though - and should have known

better. I asked him not to use the guilt by association method, because I

and most REALTORS always put our client's best interests first and I

personally was licensed in 2006 after the housing boom thus by default

cannot be responsible for the housing decline, which was caused by subprime

mortgages, by the way.

So he started making the analogy about guilt by association by saying that

he is a student of Warren Jeffs.

Warren Jeff was a president of the fundamentalist Mormon church and was

convicted of child rape and incest and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

That poster/author said he met Warren Jeffs whom he considers one of his

teachers.

As a realtor I represent my broker, thus I did not want him to carry on that kind

of discussion on my thread, and I asked him to leave. I also tried to FLAG

his post, but somehow the flag did NOT work, although it should.

I did not want to be associated with this person and since the flag did not

work, I posted a thread explaining what this individual was doing - he was

basically highjacking my thread, which was about tax credit for his own sick

agenda.

From that time on, it became intolerable - eventually he apologized .... and

announced that he never met Warren Jeffs and was not a Mormon and only did

it as an "analogy" and for laughs...

But he continued posting in his defense and he asked others (possibly

moderators) on Zillow to join him. Together they opened a very negative

campaign against me as if the poster did nothing wrong and it was all my

fault. One of his supporters posted a telephone number to my broker and my

broker's name and asked everyone to call him.

This can be very damaging to my career - there are many people who visit

Zillow.

Not only that I have not done anything wrong, as I simply asked him to leave

since he insisted to be a follower of convicted child rapist, including

incest.

Yet, with the help of his friends, he blamed it on me, even though he

himself admitted that he lied and made up the story.

Their behavior endangered my career by creating a very negative atmosphere

and possibly cost me clients - not to mention my license, since a telephone

to my broker was posted in the open view inviting to make the phone calls -

clearly, this is physical and emotional harassment.

The person who posted the telephone number has real estate education,

although no license, and was fully aware of the consequences of posting my

broker's telephone number.

Also, Zillow is guilty of allowing it to happen, despite my complaints to

them.

I am looking for an attorney who is knowledgeable and sensitive to such issues to take this case,

and who is willing to be compensated as a percentage of the damages awarded.

Links to the threads:

http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/8-000-tax-credit-for-home-buyers-extended-and-expended/297413/

and

http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/NTETS-pushes-his-agendas-on-threads-he-claims-to-be-a-student-of-Warren-Jeffs-who-was/298182/

1 Answer from Attorneys

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