Woman Sued For Yelp Review, Forced to Make It Nicer
Jane Perez, of Fairfax, VA is being sued for $750,000 after writing a nasty Yelp review about the contracting company Dietz Development. In the review, which was also posted on Angie's List, Perez accuses the company of shoddy workmanship and stealing her jewelry.
Despite the fact that the police said that there was no connection between the missing jewelry and the company, Perez still kept the review up. Dietz is now claiming that the review cost the company about $300,000 in work opportunities; they also added on an estimated $500,000 thanks to their newly infamous business reputation and the anxiety they felt regarding the case--which is a bit ridiculous for a review on an Internet site in our opinion.
Even though the case is still on-going, on Wednesday the judge filed a temporary injunction and told Perez that she has to re-word her review. It seems in the state of Virginia, the law says that one's opinions are protected by the First Amendment except when a person implies that their statement (or in this case, review) about one's business reputation is true when it is actually false. Then it is considered to be defamation.
However, Perez will have to hunt for her review because now it's no longer up. It is unclear whether Yelp removed it or she took it down herself, but it is now lost in the Internet sands of time. Lost is not forgotten, though, and she has a few defenders who have flocked to her side and left one-star reviews for Dietz filing a lawsuit over an Internet complaint. Either way, his reputation is ruined because the Internet does not forgive or forget; just look at the grudges Anonymous holds!
Watch a news report on the story below.