Florida Appeals Court Upholds Temporary Injunction Ordering Removal Of Videotaped Robosigner Depositions

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• A foreclosure defense attorney who uncovered what he called "astounding" revelations of bank misbehavior does not have a right to post videos of bank employees on the Internet, an appeals court has ruled.



• The videos are anything but a YouTube sensation, but they touched off a legal battle over First Amendment rights in December when a Sarasota County judge ordered them taken off the Internet video sharing site.



• The ACLU of Florida appealed on behalf of Sarasota lawyer Christopher Forrest and his law firm, saying Circuit Judge Rick De Furia's temporary injunction violated Forrest's free-speech rights.

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• But the 2nd DCA ruling last week stated that De Furia made the right call because depositions and other pre-trial information are not court records that are generally open to the public and because they frequently contain matters that are irrelevant, defamatory or prejudicial.

For more, see Bank employee videos to be kept off YouTube.

For the court ruling, see Forrest v. Citi Residential Lending, Inc., 2D10-5667 (Fla. App. 2d DCA June 29, 2011).