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Yelp Negative Review Case In California Could Set Legal Precedent Mandating Removal Of Potentially Damaging Bad Ratings Online

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 06:40 PST, Sep 22, 2016

Yelp will soon defend itself against an order from a California appeals court that asked the business review website to take down negative reviews. The popular platform is used by millions of customers before making their final decision to avail services the businesses featured on the website offer.

California Supreme Court’s decision might cause the removal of any negative reviews about businesses on Yelp and other similar platforms. The lawsuit that the court has agreed to considers is pivotal to the survival of all critical feedback that users post on the platform, potentially preventing other patrons from suffering the same ordeal. Barely two months after the appeals court attempted to force Yelp to take down alleged defamatory comments about a business, the California Supreme Court unanimously agreed to hear an appeal of the case that is bound to set a legal precedent regarding critical reviews on such websites.

The Supreme Court’s decision will allow Yelp to defend itself and put forth a convincing argument about how the removal of any of the reviews would amount to a violation of free speech as accorded by the American Constitution. Moreover, Yelp is expected to argue that if the court forces it to take down this one alleged defamatory comment, it would open a floodgate of similar lawsuits and requests that would force Yelp and other similar platforms to take down any and all reviews that the businesses might find distasteful.

Incidentally, the review is likely to take up an entire year. Hence, the four-year-long case is expected to drag out for an even longer amount of time. In other words, the allegedly defamatory reviews will continue to be online and visible to everyone.

Why is Yelp being forced to take down the comment? Ava Bird, a disgruntled former client of a San Francisco law firm, owned by Dawn Hassell, had allegedly posted negative and, according to the firm, damaging reviews way back in 2012. Bird had required representation in a personal injury claim. However, the client and the firm soon parted ways.

Afterwards, someone posted critical one-star Yelp ratings against the firm and added the lawyer deserved an even lower rating. Hassell concluded it must have been Bird. The firm contacted Bird through email, informing her that the comments were inaccurate and defamatory and asked her to remove them immediately.

As expected, the comments weren’t taken down. On the contrary, someone posted a second review in February of 2013, which, needless to say, didn’t paint a good picture of the firm.

The law firm sued Bird, and the lawsuit was served at a house Bird no longer lived in. When she did not respond, a default judgment was entered against her. An appeals court upheld the order, which forced Yelp to approach the California Supreme Court. Since Yelp wasn’t named or accused in the early stages of the case, it had no chance to be heard or argue at the trial. The company issued a statement through Aaron Schur, a senior director of litigation for Yelp.

“We look forward to making our full arguments to the Court and explaining how the lower court’s decision is ripe for abuse, contradicts long-standing legal principles, and restricts the ability of websites to provide a balanced spectrum of views online.”

Many tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Pinterest, have submitted statements to the court in support of Yelp. These tech firms argued that upholding the removal order could potentially “silence a vast quantity of protected and important speech.” Needless to say, Yelp has some strong muscle behind it.

However, the law firm maintains the following argument.

“The speech at issue here is not protected speech but speech adjudicated to be defamatory. There are decades of jurisprudence finding that defamatory speech is not protected by the First Amendment.”

Yelp has maintained that the law firm hasn’t been able to conclusively prove the reviews are defamatory. However, experts note the lawsuit represents a much bigger and potentially precarious future for review websites.

[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]

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