Shellie’s Medical Malpractice Nightmare
and her
Fight for Freedom of Speech
Jay Paul Deratany Sued Me For Writing This Website
On Thursday, December 18, 2003 Jay Paul Deratany filed a twenty-five-million dollar lawsuit against me for the publishing of this website and an additional $9,000.00 for expenses he claimed I owed him from the medical malpractice trial. I was bewildered as to why he was suing me? My website was not about him. Interestingly, I received an email from Mr. Deratany dated 12/14/06, three years after he sued me, apologizing and saying that he probably overreacted to my website deratany email. I received another email from Mr. Deratany dated 6/11/07 saying, "when you put some of the stuff on your site about me, I felt very upset..... and then I sued you and frankly the whole thing escalated." etc. deratany email 2. It should be noted that the First Amendment belongs to those who can pay for it. Freedom of speech no longer exists. I used to believe that if you were speaking the truth and/or wishing to share your opinion about something, that you had the right to speak openly and freely in America. That simply isn't the case. If you speak publicly about someone that has a lot of money and doesn't like what you said, you will have to spend a great deal of money to be able to exercise your constitutional right. The fact that you are telling the truth and can prove it is irrelevant. If you can't pay for that fight, and it will be VERY expensive, you will be silenced!
Interestingly, while Mr. Deratany did not like what I wrote on this website, a website not about him (at the time of his suing me my website ended at the breast implant resources page) he wrote a very ugly and derogatory website that was all about me www.shelliebeverlin.com (currently offline) domain registration. What kind of an attorney writes a derogatory website about his/her former client? In the many, many years that I had spent as a court reporter I had never heard of such a thing. In all the attorneys that I have spoken to about this matter, or those that have read my website about this situation, not one of them had heard of such a thing.
I was especially shocked at getting sued by Jay Paul Deratany for writing this website because he proudly touts all over the Internet that he is a human rights activist.
Human Rights: The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often to include the right to life, liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
Jay Paul Deratany also named my estranged husband in the December 18, 2003 lawsuit even after Mr. Deratany called him to threaten him with the lawsuit and my husband explained to Mr. Deratany that we were separated and that he had no involvement in the writing or publishing of my site. A substantial amount of money was spent defending my husband. The case was dismissed on jurisdictional issues. Mr. Deratany then filed the suit against my husband again, this time in federal court. My husband was once again forced to retain counsel. At that point we were fighting the same lawsuit filed in state and in federal court. Mr. Deratany shortly thereafter voluntarily withdrew the suit stating to my husband’s attorney that he will be refiling it. To date he has not done so.
I was never actually served with the lawsuit as I no longer lived in Illinois. When I found out about it I hired attorney Stephen Gorman. Mr. Gorman went to the court and put in his appearance as my attorney. Mr. Gorman argued to the court that Illinois courts did not have jurisdiction over me since I had not lived there for the previous 8 years. The court disagreed. I had only hired Mr. Gorman for the jurisdictional issue. Mr. Gorman completed what he was hired for and withdrew.