Free Speech Under Attack In Yelp! Case

Yelp argued before the California Supreme Court last week that it shouldn't have to comply with a court order to remove a one-star review of an attorney, written by a disgruntled client because that client was not a party to the initial defamation lawsuit between the two. Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this.

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Here's the point. I read the story. And I'm thinking, what kind of lawyer, where their practice rises and falls according to Yelp? This isn't like a restaurant. I'm going to look at Yelp, I'm going to see if they have good Italian food. This is a lawyer. There are a dozen different ... Martindale-Hubble, there are all types of ratings that lawyers get.

So this rating, apparently this lawyer is in such bad shape that she has to say hey, my Yelp really matters, and my client gave me a bad Yelp, gave me a one. What do you think about this story?

I think it would have to be the kind of lawyer that probably does a commercial standing on top of a semi truck. That seems like the kind of person that may or may not depend on Yelp a little bit too much. But this is an interesting case because I agree with it, and I disagree with it. Because I don't think Yelp should have to take down this review. I don't think the court has any right to order them to do that, unless, of course, and this is where I disagree. If there was actual defamation that took place within the review. If it was just saying this was a horrible lawyer, they did not do what I wanted them to do, do not hire this person, there's nothing wrong with saying that. That is your personal opinion. That's what this website is for. Yelp tried to argue though ...

That they had immunity.

Yeah, we didn't write the review. We're not associated with it. We're just a place for people to say these things.

We coordinate, and we aggregate, and we put all this stuff on there, how can we be responsible for it?

We're the microphone.

Okay, so let's go to the legal analysis. Aside from the analysis, that we're dealing with an attorney that feels like their life has been changed because they get a one-star on Yelp, 1-800 non Yelp lawyer. You can see it. So at any rate, as I look at this story, Yelp is right. Yelp is right. They're an aggregate. They're in the business of taking people's complaints. Yeah, this is a great Chinese restaurant. I love it. There are people that go on Yelp because their cuckoo. There are people that write into, ring of fire, absolutely cuckoo. When you read their stuff ... I do a show, as you know, that's called America's Lawyer, and it's on Russian television. So I have all the freaks come out, like I'm some sort of Russian spy because I do Russian television.

You talk about freaks. Look, social media ... Here's the truth. Social media is part of the process. Anybody who takes the time on social media and spends a lot of time giving comments about stuff, you know, it's going to happen. It's not Yelp's fault. It's just part of social media. So she gets a one-star, come on. They should have a type of immunity that says, yeah, I'm just an aggregator. If it's an act of violence, if it's moving towards hate speech or violence, that's a little different.

Right.

But I didn't get the impression reading this case that that had anything to do with that.

No, absolutely not. This was a lawyer, somebody who was upset that they got a one-star rating, a very thin-skinned individual that ... And like you said, obviously their practice is dependent upon Yelp reviews. But here's the point of things like this and the other ratings is to go through and read why that person gave a one-star review. Because you can tell real quick if this is somebody who's got a personal vendetta or if it's somebody who's got a real grievance with it.

It's the same thing if you read a review of a product on Amazon. You can tell if it's somebody who actually did get scammed by this product or they just hate the company.