Patient Faces Lawsuit Over Negative Review of Doctor

[Kristijntje]

San Franciscan Christopher Norberg went to a chiropractor after being injured in a car accident in 2006. After a disagreement with the chiropractor over billing, he posted a negative review of the business on Yelp suggesting that the doctor was dishonest. Now he is facing a defamation lawsuit that could chill self-expression on the popular gripe Web site.

"If Christopher loses then anyone on Yelp who writes a negative review better be careful," said Michael Blacksburg, an attorney representing Norberg. "This strikes at the heart of Yelp's business model and other Web sites that provide a bulletin board for people to state what they think of businesses in their community." ...

full article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133466-38.html

[xwpopper]

Wow, this is really digging and should scare the hell out of eBay, Amazon, price comparison sites, and any other site that allows a customer to rate a business as well as shoppers of those sites. Every time I received a negative or neutral feedback on eBay, my sales would slump for a day or two until it left the first page of my feedback, then they would creep back up and a few days later it would be like nothing happened. That damaged my reputation and directly affected my business, whether I deserved it or not, but it never crossed my mind to sue the buyer!

I had a a buyer on eBay that called me a scammer and said I stole his money just a week after his payment, even after I replied to his 3 emails... what really happened was his package was delayed in Canadian customs. I didn't sue him, I just reported it to eBay to be removed (which they didn't) once the package was delivered. Apparently though, I could have screwed him out of his First Amendment rights to give his public opinion about my business practices, and sued his ass because of the few hundred bucks I lost in sales over the next day. I instead took the high road, and let all my other thousands of positive ratings speak for me.

When you offer a public forum for customers to rate your services, that's what happens. If this ends up being ruled in favor of the doctor, I guess I will be guilty of slander for what I tell neighbors about how I don't eat at a local restaurant that routinely undercooks meat and pulls flies out of the salad bar while continuing to serve it.

[mandy]

The case was settled out of court yesterday.

"This case was settled with the mutual satisfaction of both parties," said Michael Blacksburg, who represented patient Christopher Norberg. The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential and the March trial date will be canceled, he said.

full article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10139278-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20