Contractor Sues Customer for $750,000 for Leaving a Negative Review on Yelp!

[Travis Van Slooten]

Virginia woman is sued for $750,000 over her Yelp review | Mail Online

The comments left on the article are as interesting as the story itself. Should this contractor have sued? Will it help or hurt his business?

You would think there would be a policy in place where a business owner could request Yelp to remove a review if the review was a little "over the top" - instead of having to resort to suing someone.

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Linda Buquet]

Whoa, crazy story Travis. Thanks for sharing it! And be careful what you say out there!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Interesting story. Too bad the reporting was lacking in what aspect of her review was found by the Court to be objectionable. My guess is she misrepresented facts (such as the info regarding the lein). Easy way to remain judgement free is to not be malicious in writing the Review and using as much personal opinion as possible!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Virginia woman is sued for $750,000 over her Yelp review | Mail Online

The comments left on the article are as interesting as the story itself. Should this contractor have sued? Will it help or hurt his business?

You would think there would be a policy in place where a business owner could request Yelp to remove a review if the review was a little "over the top" - instead of having to resort to suing someone.

Travis Van Slooten

Update on the Case - The Virginia Supreme Court weighed in on the preliminary injunction regarding the lower court's ordering the homeowner to revise part of her reviews and not post about ordering Perez to remove the parts of her review that the company's employees stole jewelry. The Virginia Supreme Court wrote:

Upon further consideration whereof, the Court also finds that the preliminary injunction was not justified and that the respondents have an adequate remedy at law​

The Court basically found that the lawsuit against the woman by the development company could resolve the issue of the reviews. In the Consumerist article I read, the Court could only order the removal or modification of the reviews if her posts were found to be defamatory and/or libelous.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Andrew,
Thank you so much for posting a follow-up on this story. I agree with Travis' earlier comment that review entities should have a some type of system of arbitration that would enable a business owner to dispute a really bad review rather than going to court. I think the court acted fairly well in this, but what a waste of taxpayers' funding it would be if there were more cases like this.

Appreciate you pointing to the follow up.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Thanks for the follow up on this. As more and more people leave reviews, I expect more and more lawsuits in the coming months. It's just too easy for customers to destroy a business' reputation. All they have to do is go on a negative review spree

Travis Van Slooten