The legally speaking blog posted below is published weekly by Aaron Sachs and Associates of Springfield, Missouri, specializing in Missouri personal injury and accident practice.

What penalties will a St. Louis woman face for contributing to the suicide of a teenager on Myspace?

In 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide after someone she thought was a teenage boy told her “the world would be better off without her.” A tragedy by any definition, but this case shocked the nation because it turned out the boy wasn’t a boy, and wasn’t a teenager. It was a grown woman who used a website to fool Megan.

Q: Aaron, this week’s topic is Megan Meier’s suicide. How did the woman accused of causing her suicide fool Megan?

A: Lori Drew, a woman in her 40s, created a profile on the Myspace website identifying herself as a teenage boy. She then imitated a fake online romance with Megan Meier, whose family lived four doors down.

Q: Why would someone do such a thing?

A: Drew’s daughter was a classmate of Meier’s, and Drew claimed she started the fraudulent relationship to find out what Meier was saying about her daughter.

Q: How did it progress to the point of Megan killing herself?

A: Megan had been treated by a psychiatrist for depression. Initially, her new online relationship lifted her spirits, but for some reason Drew began sending her insulting messages, saying that no one liked Megan. Megan’s parents tried to control her access to Myspace, realizing it was upsetting her, but this lead to a fight. Following this confrontation and another nasty message from Drew, Megan Meier hanged herself.

Q: Was Drew charged with manslaughter?

A: She wasn’t charged with anything at first. It wasn’t clear that a crime had been committed. As horrible and disgusting as her actions may have been, Drew didn’t provide Meier with the rope or push her off a ledge. Missouri officials found that no state laws had been broken.

Q: How did this case end up in court?

A: A federal attorney in Los Angeles, where Myspace is based, charged Drew with unauthorized computer access and conspiracy. The claim was based on the fact that she violated Myspace’s terms of service agreement by creating a fake account.

Q: So she was never charged directly for Meier’s death?

A: No.

Q: Was she found guilty?

A: She was found guilty of three charges of unauthorized computer access to commit fraud, but there was a mistrial on the conspiracy charge. Appeals and motions for retrials are pending.

Q: What penalties will she face if the convictions hold?

A: The three charges she was convicted of are misdemeanors. She faces up to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine for each charge.

Q: What long-term effect will this case have on the Internet?

A: One of Drew’s defenses was that she could not have violated the Myspace terms of service because she never read them. The court rejected that defense. Lots of people use websites or install software without reading over all the fine print, but you’re still legally liable for following those rules.

Q: Does this place the responsibility for a user’s actions on the user, and not on the service provider?

A: It does set that precedent. In some ways, you could compare this case to suing a gun manufacturer for a murder committed with a gun they made. This case essentially said, “Websites don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Q: Aaron, what’s the bottom line on the Myspace suicide case?

A: This was a terrible tragedy encouraged by an adult who should have known better, but as one law enforcement official said of the case, not every terrible thing in the world is against the law.

It is against the law to drive a motor vehicle in Missouri without mandatory insurance coverage. This is a good thing for protecting those involved in a personal injury accident on Missouri roads or highways.

As per the dor.mo.gov web site, the insurance requirements are as follows:

“Liability insurance covers your legal liability when injuries or property damage happen as a result of your actions. The minimum level of coverage required by state law is:
• $25,000 per person for bodily injury
• $50,000 per accident for bodily injury
• $10,000 per accident for property
The law also requires you to have uninsured motorist coverage of $25,000 for bodily injury per person and $50,000 for bodily injury per accident.”
Unfortunately, many Missouri drivers do not have the insurance coverage required, with devastating consequences for those involved in a personal injury accident with an uninsured motorist. This is one good reason to talk with your insurance agent about insurance coverage over and above the legal limits to make sure that you and your family are fully covered in the event of a personal injury accident.

The legally speaking blog posted below is published weekly by Aaron Sachs and Associates of Springfield, Missouri, specializing in Missouri personal injury and accident practice.

Is the Madoff investment scam another blow to our staggering economy?

Aaron Sachs, A Missouri attorney will answer questions about Bernard Madoff this week.
Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff convinced the rich and famous to invest billions of dollars in his hedge fund. With Madoff’s arrest and revelations that the whole fund was a fraud, many of those people may never see their money again. But Madoff’s thievery could have far reaching effects that go far beyond the Palm Beach country clubs where he recruited investors.

Q: Aaron, this week’s topic is the Madoff scam. Who is Bernard Madoff?

A: Madoff founded his own investment firm in 1960. His firm was heavily involved in the founding of the NASDAQ stock exchange. In recent years, Madoff Investment Securities got involved in asset management. People would give him money, trusting that his investment strategies would pay off for them.

Q: So he wasn’t an unknown quantity?

A: No, and that’s part of the problem. He had such a pedigree on Wall Street, and had such success for many years, that people were inclined to trust him. They trusted him even though there were danger signs as far back as 2005 that something was fishy with his investment strategies.

Q: What were the early warnings?

A: Madoff’s investment strategy, something known as a “collar trade,” is well known. His fund reported almost constant growth – five to 15 percent every month – for years. That reported growth continued even recently, when the markets themselves were down as much as 40 percent. It’s impossible for anyone to be that consistently successful. Also, regulators and other fund managers tested his strategy. Even using historic market data, they could not duplicate his success.

Q: Were there official investigations?

A: There were two official SEC inquiries into Madoff, but only minor violations were ever found.

Q: What was actually going on at Madoff Investment Securities?

A: It was a giant Ponzi scheme. We talked about those a few weeks ago – the scam artist brings in money by promising high returns on an investment, then pays off those early investors by getting more money from newer investors. It inevitably collapses, since there’s no real source of income and you can never find enough new investors to keep the scam going. This was probably the largest Ponzi scheme pulled off by a single individual in history.

Q: Madoff’s fund wasn’t really making double digit gains?

A: Investigators think Madoff may have made some initial gains by “front running,” an illegal practice in which a firm buys or sells stocks on its own behalf before it executes orders made by its clients. Other than that, his entire asset management firm was hollow.

Q: How was he caught?

A: In recent months, Madoff’s investors started pulling money out of his fund, to the tune of $7 billion. He couldn’t cover it, and the whole scheme was collapsing. He tried to pay millions of dollars in bonuses to employees and family members, but his sons, who work in the firm but reportedly had no idea it was a fraud, confronted him. He admitted it was a scam, and his sons turned him over to federal authorities.

Q: What is Madoff’s current status?

A: He is free on $10 million bail and subject to a 7 p.m. curfew. He also surrendered his passport. He is charged with one count of securities fraud. A conviction could result in a 20 year prison sentence and a fine of $5 million. Many of his former investors are also suing him.

Q: Will anyone get their money back?

A: It’s unlikely. Some investors who pulled their money out of the fund may have to give it up to repay other victims of the scam.

Q: How far will this reach?

A: The total amount Madoff defrauded is $50 billion, which is a damaging amount by itself. But many of his investors were other investment funds, schools, charities and a number of foreign investment houses. The effects will ripple throughout the economy.

Q: Aaron, what’s the bottom line on the Madoff scam?

A: Many of the victims were blinded by greed. They were so eager to make more money that they didn’t stop to question if Madoff’s strategy made any sense. Unfortunately, a lot of innocent people will be dragged down by the fallout from this.

As a Missouri personal injury attorney, I see clients who have been in all kinds of personal injury accidents, but mostly vehicle accidents, such as car accidents, truck accidents, drunk driver accidents, etc.

The statistics for vehicle personal injury accidents in Missouri are quite alarming. According to MoDOT, there were a total of 66,601 on-road traffic accidents and 21,911 off-road vehicle accidents in 2007, for a total of 88,512. Eight-eight thousand accidents – that’s a big number. Of those accidents, 35,796 involved personal injury. That’s nearly 36,000 personal injury accidents last year. In addition, there were 773 fatalities. That number might seem small in comparison, but when you think that over 700 people died in Missouri road accidents last year, that’s a lot of deaths, a lot of loss and a lot of sorrow.

In light of the number of accidents and accidents involving personal injury or death, the State of Missouri has wisely enacted laws that make insurance coverage mandatory in our state. That doesn’t mean that people don’t break the law and drive without insurance coverage, but at least most drivers are covered in case of an injury accident on our roads.