How to Write a Bad Review Without Getting Sued
Did you know that you could be sued for writing a negative review of a business on Yelp? Information technology's true. A Virginia-based building contractor has sued one of his sometime customers for writing a blistering review of his business organisation on the popular review website. Co-ordinate to the Washington Post, Christopher Dietz seeks $750,000 in damages in an Internet defamation lawsuit filed against Fairfax County, Virginia, resident Jane Perez, who claimed in her Yelp review that Dietz acquired impairment to her abode, failed to complete work he said he did, and stole her jewelry. Dietz is also seeking a preliminary injunction against Perez to proceed her from writing any more Yelp reviews.
Dietz's suit against Perez is far from the outset lawsuit filed for negative Yelp reviews. Doctors have washed it. Dentists have washed information technology. Owners of wedding ceremony venues accept done it. And unless you're careful, that restaurant y'all just chosen "filthy" might sue you lot, too. Here'due south how to make sure that doesn't happen.
Speak the truth
Y'all might call up that the First Subpoena protects your right to say what you similar about the businesses you lot patronize. And for the near part, that'south true. In that location are, however, limits to free speech in the U.S., and one of those limits is laws against defamation.
Defamation applies to whatsoever statements that make someone else wait bad to the public. Most of the time, a defamatory argument must be falsefor the courts to rule it confronting the police.
So, the number one rule when writing reviews on Yelp or elsewhere online is to be 100 percent factual in your criticisms. Don't say that a waiter spilled scalding coffee in your lap if he didn't, or that y'all were overcharged when you weren't.
Opinions are amend than hard facts
To avoid stepping into factually ambiguous territory, colour your review with opinions and emotions rather than exaggerations on the facts.
For instance, I once took my domestic dog to a trainer for agility lessons. During a class, the trainer pulled a choker collar extremely tight around my dog'southward neck just after feeding him a treat. He immediately stuck out his tongue and the cheese brutal out of his mouth, then he cowered abroad in fear. I was livid, and immediately left the class.
Now, what I might want to say in a Yelp review is that the trainer "abused my domestic dog," "choked him," etc. But a better, every bit constructive fashion to criticize this trainer would exist to say that "information technology looked as though she choked my dog," and that her training methods "made me feel extremely uncomfortable." These qualifiers – looked, feel – permit me to get my signal across while avoiding accusing the trainer of something that I might non be able to back up in court. And opinions are, of course, protected past the U.Southward. Constitution.
Getting SLAPPed
Of grade, nothing you do can stop someone else from filing a lawsuit to silence a bad review that might negatively affect business concern. But there are state laws in place that can.
Lawsuits of this nature are called "Strategic Lawsuits Confronting Public Participation," or SLAPP. They are filed for the sole purpose of shutting people upwards by imposing the crushing toll of a legal defence. In response to these speech-spooky lawsuits, a number of states – around 30 so far – take passed anti-SLAPP legislation, which makes it easier for courts to dismiss instances of SLAPP. And while the Federal government has not all the same passed anti-SLAPP legislation, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on a variety of cases that help bolster the legal fight confronting SLAPP.
To go a better agreement of anti-SLAPP laws, click hither.
Proceed it quick
To sum up, Yelp provides consumers with a great service. Simply it tin can be driveling by patrons and businesses alike. If you accept a negative experience with a business organisation, keep the facts simple and straightforward, and don't exaggerate. If you don't believe the straight facts properly express the severity of a situation, feel gratis to requite a scathing opinion to avoid fudging the objective facts in a potentially slanderous way.
Image via Evgeniya Porechenskaya/Shutterstock
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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/how-to-yelp-review-lawsuit/
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