Yelp consumer, Jane Perez was ordered by a judge to alter her Yelp.com review on a contractor while the rest of her defamation case was finished. She accused the contractor of poor work and theft while they were hired. Virginia supreme court decided to overturn the judge’s order and allowing the yelp review to stay active.
Perez gave a job to Christopher Dietz from washing D.C., for home improvements that had an estimated cost of about $50,000 back in 2011. Jane was very displeased with all of the work that they had been providing, so she had Dietz as well as his employees fired. Shortly after they were fired, Perez noticed that $2,500 worth of jewelry had been taken from her home.
Infuriated, Perez went online and posted reviews within Yelp as well as other similar review sites in early 2012 about Dietz and her experience working with him, also accusing him of the theft of her jewelry, says Ars Technica.
Dietz denied any allegations regarding the theft, and soon after, decided to sue Perez because of defamation as well as a injunction against her reviews on the internet.
Perez would have been required to remove all or parts of the reviews she had wrote until the case was finished. The injunction was approved last month by a judge to help stop any negative behavior until the court proceedings were completed.
The judge’s decision to order the injunction was met by two different free speech groups, American Civil liberties Union and also Public Citizen. Together a jointed petition was filed with the supreme court to have it reviewed. The higher court then overturned the order that allowed the injunction, within two days.
The yelp review is still up as of right now, but the defamation lawsuit is still underway, and will continue to down the line of legal proceedings.
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