What if Case Is in Litigation Can Yelp Take Out Review
Internet Law
Courts can't order Yelp to accept down negative review of constabulary firm, California Supreme Court rules
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that Yelp tin't be required to remove negative reviews of a San Francisco law business firm.
The country supreme courtroom ruled for Yelp on Monday in a 4-iii conclusion, study the National Law Periodical, Courthouse News Service and the San Francisco Chronicle. How Highly-seasoned links to additional coverage.
3 justices in the bulk said Yelp was protected by the Communications Decency Human activity, while a concurring justice said Yelp couldn't exist enjoined because it wasn't a political party in the suit.
The injunction stemmed from a defamation suit filed by lawyer Dawn Hassell against her firm's former customer, Ava Bird. Hassell had sued after Bird acknowledged she wrote a 1-star review of the Hassell Law Group that complained her lawyer had withdrawn from her personal injury instance "because her mom had a cleaved leg, or something like that, and that the insurance company was too much for her to handle." Bird had written the review under the proper name "Birdzeye B."
"In all fairness, I have to share my experience so others can be forewarned," Bird had written. "She will probably non do annihilation for you, except make your situation worse."
Bird advised readers to "steer clear of this police house" and to "research around to discover a law firm with a proven track record of success, a expert piece of work ethic, competence and long term client satisfaction. At that place are many in the Bay area and with some diligent smart interviewing, you can find a competent chaser, but this won't exist one of them."
The state supreme court said the firm had withdrawn from the representation considering Hassell concluded that Bird was unhappy with its performance.
Later the adjust was filed, "Birdzeye B" posted an update to her review that said Hassell had sued her and "tried to threaten, bully, intimidate me into removing the review!"
Yelp was not a defendant in the example. Hassell obtained a default judgment totaling nearly $558,000 that ordered Bird to remove the defamatory reviews. The trial judge besides ordered Yelp to remove reviews under the names "Birdzeye B" and "J.D.," the author of another review Hassell believed to accept been written past Bird.
Yelp filed a move to set aside the judgment, or in the culling to set bated provisions requiring Yelp to act in any manner. The approximate refused, and an appeals court affirmed the injunction.
Iii justices in the California Supreme Courtroom'due south majority said the trial judge's order had violated Section 230 of the Communications Decency Human activity, which has been interpreted to protect publishers of content provided past others from defamation liability. Yelp would accept received immunity nether the law if information technology were named every bit a defendant in the case, according to 3 justices, in an opinion by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. Yelp would likewise take been shielded from injunctive relief, Cantil-Sakauye said.
"The question hither is whether a unlike result should obtain because plaintiffs made the tactical decision non to name Yelp as a defendant," Cantil-Sakauye said. "Put some other way, we must make up one's mind whether plaintiffs' litigation strategy allows them to reach indirectly what Congress has clearly forbidden them to achieve directly. We believe the answer is no."
Hassell had contended that Yelp's duty to comply with the removal order arose "as a party through whom the court must enforce its society," rather than its status of a publisher. Cantil-Sakauye was non persuaded by that description.
The opinion added that the court could enforce its order against Bird thorough contempt sanctions.
Justice Leondra Kruger wrote the concurrence asserting that Yelp wasn't a political party to the conform and information technology was entitled to its twenty-four hour period in court. Kruger said that if it were permissible to enter an injunction confronting a nonparty to a lawsuit that operates a website, the website operator would be entitled to immunity nether the Communications Decency Human activity in these circumstances. "I express no view on how section 230 might apply to a dissimilar asking for injunctive relief based on different justifications," Kruger wrote.
A lawyer for Hassell, Monique Olivier, told the National Police force Periodical that the decision "stands as an invitation to spread falsehoods on the net without outcome." Olivier said the court had given a broad interpretation to Department 230, and Hassell is considering seeking review by the U.Southward. Supreme Court.
"With this decision, online publishers in California can exist bodacious that they cannot be lawfully forced to remove third-political party voice communication through enterprising abuses of the legal system, and those of us that use such platforms to express ourselves cannot be easily silenced through such tactics either," Yelp said in a statement on its weblog.
Updated July 5 to include statement from Yelp.
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Source: https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/courts_cant_order_yelp_to_take_down_negative_review_of_law_firm_california
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