Can I Be Fired From Walmart for a Bad Website Review

If you get poor service in a restaurant or feel a photographer yous hired didn't do the job you paid for, it can be very tempting to jump online and write a scathing review. Before yous practise, you lot should think twice. If you lot're not careful, leaving a bad review could become you sued.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. We're basing the advice in this commodity from cases in the public tape. It'south primarily focused on the United states of america legal system, although there are similar cases in other Western countries. If yous are beingness sued for anything y'all've written online, contact a lawyer and go professional legal communication immediately.

People Have Been Sued for Bad Reviews

The reality is that anyone can sue anyone at any fourth dimension for any thing. Frivolous lawsuits are a real matter. PETA has spent seven years suing a photographer on behalf of a monkey. This means that if you annoy a company enough, they can lawyer up and get a court appointment. Yous might win, only information technology could even so end upward costing you a lot of time and money.

Specifically, people take been sued in the past for leaving bad reviews. In some cases—and nosotros'll explore some examples—the visitor has won. In others, like this case where an Edmonton human left a one star review for a tech company that didn't call him back, the company never follows through with their threat. In notwithstanding more than, such every bit this 1 where a student left a negative review of a law firm that came into her bedroom while she was sleeping in her underwear, the person being sued has won and the visitor has had to pay their legal fees—$27,000 in this instance.

The big takeaway is that, whatsoever the event ends up beingness, companies take sued people for leaving bad reviews. Even if the case ends up being thrown out by a estimate, it still can't accept been a fun few months for the people involved while everything was going on. And unless y'all win and get reimbursement for legal fees, you lot're still out whatever money you paid to your lawyer.

Reviews Are Protected By the First Subpoena…To a Signal

In the US, reviews are protected by the First Subpoena, which covers liberty of speech. To back this up, Congress passed a law in 2016 chosen the Consumer Review Fairness Human action, which made it illegal for companies to add terms to their contracts that banned customers from posting negative reviews—or fined them if they do. These terms were becoming increasingly common at the time.

As long equally what you say is factually true or is an opinion, this act should protect what you write. Nonetheless, with a negative review, it'south very easy to cross into defamatory territory. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great summary on online defamation laws. It'south meant for bloggers, only it applies to anyone who posts content, similar reviews, online.

In cursory, if you publish "a simulated statement of fact" that could "harm the reputation of the plaintiff" (which means the company in this instance), then you are committing defamation.

Take this example where a woman, Emily Fanelli, left a Yelp review of floor refinisher Matt Gardiner saying:

"this guy mat the owner is a scam do not use him you lot will regret doing business with this company I'm going to court he is a scam customers delight beware he will destroy your floors he is cipher by a liar he robs customers, and promises you lot everything if you want s— then go with him if you like nice work find another he is A SCAM LIAR Balderdash—-ER"

Gardiner (the floor refinisher) sued Fanelli over her review, and the judge ruled in Gardiner's favor, application him $g in damages. The judge said that, "Terms such every bit 'scam,' 'con artist' and 'robs' imply actions approaching criminal wrongdoing rather than someone who failed to live up to the terms of a contract." In other words, because Fanelli implied Gardiner was a criminal, she was committing defamation.

In another case, Andrew and Neely Moldovan went to the press and defendant their wedding photographer, Andrea Polito, of belongings the photos earnest over a $150 fee they claimed wasn't in the contract. Articles, like this i in the Daily Mail, before long appeared.

The Washington Post reports that "the Moldovans' sympathizers descended on photographer Andrea Polito's review pages, calling her a scam creative person, or worse." Things got and then bad that Polito had to close her studio, so she sued the Moldovans. The jurors institute that the Moldovans were in the wrong and thus, they were guilty of malicious defamation. They awarded Polito more than than $1,000,000 in damages.

As you tin can see, the line between opinion and defamation can be very sparse. I know I've certainly used words similar "scam" to describe services I wasn't happy with. The damages—especially if you lot manage to destroy someone's business—can likewise be huge.

The Takeaways

The point of this article isn't to scare you off writing honest, negative reviews online. There are thousands of negative reviews posted every day and only a very modest number of them end up with lawyers involved. The big takeaways are:

• Only post things that are absolutely true.
• Make sure you're expressing an opinion by proverb things like, "I didn't like Ten" rather than making statements that could be interpreted equally facts like "X sucks".
• Avoid accusing the companies yous're reviewing of criminal behaviour like robbing you, scamming you, and then on.
• Don't write reviews while you're angry. Wait a few days and see how you feel. If you lot notwithstanding feel the need to write a negative review, do it advisedly and deliberately.
• If you lot are sued or threatened with a lawsuit, contact a lawyer immediately. A few hundred dollars worth of legal advice now could save y'all hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future.

And seriously, we're not kidding almost the talking to a lawyer part.

Photo by Claire Anderson on Unsplash.

codyobst1946.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/352302/can-you-get-sued-for-leaving-a-bad-review/

Share this post