Internet Marketing

Bad Yelp Review Leads to $750,000 Lawsuit

Guest post Provided by Yelp Mediation

A negative Yelp review has had extraordinarily expensive consequences for two people in Virginia. Though high school sweethearts they were not, two former teenage classmates from Virginia grew up to have a very public falling out on Yelp (and other review sites). This November, Christopher Dietz sued Jane Perez, his former classmate, for Internet defamation. In a scathing Yelp review, Perez not only claimed that Dietz’s work had been subpar, but that he had stolen jewelry from her home. Through his suit, Dietz is seeking $750,000 in damages. Ouch!

Perez hired Dietz’s company to carry out cosmetic repairs on her home in Fairfax, Virginia. The story, as told in The Washington Post, is that Perez did not pay for those services, which prompted an earlier suit by Dietz against Perez. The $750,000 suit, however, is on account of the negative publicity Perez created for Dietz on multiple business review sites found online. Reputation management was clearly in order, and Dietz went to the courts.

As a result of his legal filing, Dietz got a judge to order that Perez take down the most damning words in her reviews. Bad reviews are nothing new to businesses, and the media is pointing to the Dietz vs. Perez case as a cautionary tale about all the wrong that can ensue from untrue online reviews.