A blogger was doing his thang, writing about his life and whatnot. Only what was going on in his life was a court case, and his blog had an effect on the outcome.

The Globe ran a front-page story about pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman who was embroiled in a malpractice suit. The suit regarded the death of a 12-year-old from complications from diabetes.

The prosecution did its homework and found a blog that described the court case. (Now that's a lawyer!) Lindeman's blog handle was "Flea," as in the Chili Pepper and what pediatricians get called when training, not the bug.

What was the problem with "Flea's" blog? "Flea had ridiculed the plaintiff's case and the plaintiff's lawyer. He had revealed the defense strategy. He had accused members of the jury of dozing." He also wondered if the plaintiff's lawyer was a "pillow biter." No one mentioned if "Flea" made a joke about legal briefs.

Once the word of the blog was out, Lindeman settled the case the next day. Taking a page from the author of the other recent scandalous blog, "The Full Comp," Lindeman took it down, but Google cache worked its magic.

The sad thing about the case is that, with all the blog brouhaha, the case will never be tried fairly in court, and no one will ever really know if Lindeman committed malpractice or if he didn't. He may be the best doctor in the world, but we'll never know. But we can safely guess that his lawyer probably wants to throttle him right now.

And another sad thing – Lindeman was a funny guy. Beyond the tragic nature of the case and the obviously bad idea of making fun of the plaintiff's lawyer, he had some serious snark talent, including this bon mot: "Doctor, you have all this Ivy League parchment hanging on your wall and yet you acted like a dumb-ass pre-med, did you not?"
and
"Pediatricians who write for newspapers and magazines produce icky, squishy pap that bears only the faintest resemblance to expository writing, and that is astonishingly void of original points of view. Flea is trying to keep it real."

But "keeping it real" means that Lindeman will probably never use those snark skills again.

Image of Flea/Lindeman's blog from Google cache.