In a rather interesting dispute over postings on a personal website and on-line forum, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently entered an order directing the plaintiff to choose between a remittitur (i.e. reduction) of his $236,000 jury verdict to $53,000 or a new trial.  The plaintiff, a Maryland attorney, filed a defamation lawsuit against an on-line poster who questioned the plaintiff’s ethical conduct, accused him of the criminal act of extortion, and stated that the plaintiff had been discharged from his employment with a law firm as a result of such conduct.  A copy of the court’s memorandum opinion can be found here (the Factual Background section is worth reading just for the on-line postings that the jury found to be defamatory).