Legal Research

Case Reversed for Allowing Wikipedia as Evidence

From the North Jersey Crime Examiner:

A Bergen County [NJ] judge mistakenly let a collection company lawyer cover a gap in evidence against a credit-card holder by using a Wikipedia page, a state appeals court has ruled.

"[I]t is entirely possible for a party in litigation to alter a Wikipedia article, print the article and thereafter offer it in support of any given position," the appeals justices wrote, referring to the "anyone can edit" online encyclopedia.

"Such a malleable source of information is inherently unreliable and clearly not one whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned," they added.

In doing so, the appeals panel tossed out a collection judgment... of more than $30,500.

Full post as published by WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).