In late December, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed. The ACLU argued that the order violated Perez’s first amendment rights by telling her that she could not make certain statements even before a court had determined that they were false or defamatory. ( MORE: The Yelp Conspiracy: How a Group of Businesses Conspired to Get Better Yelp Ratings)ĭietz scored a big victory in the lower court when he persuaded a judge to order Perez to rewrite her reviews, but civil liberties groups were outraged. In fact, Dietz says Perez wanted him to do additional work for free - and then refused to pay him.

He denies that he or his workers took any jewelry. He insists he did the work satisfactorily and charged her only for work he did. There is money to be made-and lost, as bad reviews can have a major impact on a company’s bottom line.ĭietz claims that Perez’s reviews cost him a substantial amount of lost business, along with “insult, mental suffering, being placed in fear” and “anxiety,” and harm to his reputation. In his suit, he charged that Perez’s reviews were false. Non-journalists who wanted to complain about businesses or other people could express their views by word of mouth, but it was difficult for them to reach a mass audience or to do much damage. Now, of course, everyone is a critic-entire businesses have been built upon the crowdsourced opinion of the masses. Editors, and sometimes lawyers, reviewed them for fairness and accuracy. But it also means that they can be held legally responsible if what they write is defamatory.īefore the Internet, critique of any kind was mainly the perview of journalists. Sites like Yelp! and Amazon give ordinary people the power to write reviews that have a major impact on other people’s reputations and livelihoods. But it is also a reminder of the risks that come with being an online critic. The ruling is being hailed as an important victory for freedom of speech on the Internet, which it is. The Virginia Supreme Court recently reversed that decision, saying that reviews should not be censored - and that if they were defamatory, Dietz should focus on getting money damages.

The contractor, Christopher Dietz, filed a $750,000 defamation suit and got a judge to order Perez to rewrite the reviews. She warned readers: “Bottom line: do not put yourself through this nightmare of a contractor.” She said he had done a poor job on her renovations and billed her for work he did not perform - and that he may have stolen her jewelry. Follow Perez, a retired captain in the military from Fairfax County, VA, was not happy with her home contractor, so she wrote reviews on Yelp and Angie’s List explaining why.

About time movie 2013 review