Help: Being sued personally by big company

[blue22]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MI

Hi,

Any advice is greatly appreciated as my wife and I are very worried. Long story short, we were forced to sue a company that installed work on our home, and after a year they finally fixed the problem. It still ended up costing us money, but we settled with them fixing it and a partial payment for our attorney costs. So, I put up a one page website out of anger simply telling people "not" to use this company. I kept it very brief, one paragraph in fact, saying we had to sue them and it took over a year to finish, and listed their address. No other details were listed. Now, my wife and I are getting sued and they're claiming they've lost SEVERAL thousands of dollards from this one page website, one paragraph. My attorney is out of town for the weekend, and said take it down immediately.

But anyway, I believe there is no merit with this case, but they're obviously very mad to not send a warning letter first. Should I be worried, and/or what is the likely scenario besides paying a lot of attorney fees to fight this? Also, the reason we were so mad is we couldn't use our yard for over a year and it ended up costing us about $3,000 more to complete ourselves.

Thank you

 

[Tallrat]

Did you make any statements that were false or malicious? If you didn't do that you should be ok. Many sites have area's for complaints of businesses. Sadly though you'll be spending money on a lawyer. Most of the lawsuits against bloggers and website owner's that lose are from having false or malicious content. Hopefully your lawyer will talk to there lawyer and be satisfied by taking it down. I probably dont need to tell you to be more careful online. Even if your 100% in the right it can still cause you grief. Good luck

 

[blue22]

Thank you very much for the response, very appreciated. Yeah, I spoke to my attorney breifly who had to go and is gone for the weekend, so the nerves are still a little shot. He thinks we're fine, but I truly believe this company is mad because we had to sue them in the first place, and are now mad, and are trying to "show me" who's boss by shelling out attorney fees. They obviously have more money then me, so lesson learned I guess. But I'm just blown away thinking how much this will likely cost me in attorney fees by giving my opinion. I thought my opinion, as long as it wasn't a lie, was protected by the Constitution. And no, there were no lies, which my attorney told me is why we "should" be fine.

 

[quincy]

First, I hope you followed your attorney's advice and took the web page down, but I hope you saved a printout. The attorney will want to review the content when he returns.

Second, yes, you should be worried. You are being sued.

Third, any defamation action this company brings against you will be based on what you wrote on your web page and, without personally seeing the content, it would be hard for me to tell you if this company's case against you has any merit.

In order for a defamation action to be successful, however, this company must be able to show that you damaged their reputation with a falsehood. They will present your web page to the court as proof of libel, and they will provide whatever evidence they can gather of lost income tied to this libel. The judge will not dismiss the case unless you can provide a clear defense.

I can give you an idea of what your defenses could potentially be to this defamation action.

If what you wrote is the truth, "truth" would be your defense. You would need to provide evidence of this truth to fight the defamation claims, because the web page will be assumed libelous by the court if it is not clearly opinion. Your own lawsuit against this company could provide you with evidence of some of the truth of your statements. Not every detail must be proved true, by the way, as long as what you wrote is substantially true, but you will need documentation.

If what you wrote is pure opinion, and does not imply false fact, then "opinion" would be your defense. Opinion, when pure, cannot be proved true or false (ie. "That builder is one of the worst builders in the country" is opinion, whereas "That builder does not follow code" would be libelous if false).

Or, if what you wrote is a combination of truth and opinion, that is a defense as well.

Anyone who offers their work to the public (and this includes builders, writers, artists, public figures, sports figures, hospitals, schools, restaurants and so forth) is open to being commented on and criticized. If you express your opinion honestly on a matter that concerns you, or on a person or entity that you have had experience with, that is free speech. Telling people not to use a particular company because of your experience with the company is free speech.

What is not free speech, however, is telling people not to use a particular company and then giving an unfair and/or inaccurate accounting of your experiences with them. It is not free speech to generalize by saying they never finish a job on time or they always try to cheat their customers, unless you know that for a fact and can back those statements up. And you cannot say anything that unreasonably and unnecessarily invades their private lives, even if true (ie. "You should not use this company because the owner is cheating on his wife.")

Defamation actions are expensive, and attorneys fees and court costs are not always awarded should you win with your defense. Make sure you ask for them.

So, does that give you enough to ponder while you wait for your attorney's return?

Good luck.

 

[blue22]

Yes, thank you very much. To be slightly more specific, these are almost verbatum my statements: "Warning, Do not use this company (name/address). We had to sue, and it took over a year to get it resolved. Our experience was horrible.
<< end Absolutely no more detail, nothing. Now I'm looking at a half a million dollar lawsuit that we have to fight. Yes, it was taken down immediately, and those statements are 100% true, and/or my opinion.

 

[quincy]

Hmmm. And this large company, which probably has a fairly decent attorney, is thinking this has a chance in court? Puzzling.

Your settlement with the company didn't include any "confidentiality" type agreement, did it, where you agreed not to say anything bad about the company if they fixed the problem and paid part of your attorney fees?

Well, all I can say, if that is the entire published comment (and there was no previous agreement made with this company), and you did, in fact, sue the company previously, and it did, in fact, take a year to get the problems resolved, I agree with your attorney that you should be fine. Definitely ask for attorney fees should this actually make it to court, but I have a feeling the company will either withdraw the suit or the judge will dismiss it.

Again, good luck - and I will be curious to hear what happens. Post back, if you can, with the results.

 

[Tallrat]

Nice job quincy! Yes, blue22 post your results!

 

[blue22]

Thank you again (still researching, lol). Coming across a lot of Freedom Of Speech violations from others in my situation, where the website owner prevailed. Also, yes, the only thing I'm not certain of is if there was a clause, which I'll have to find out through my attorney.

They mention in the suit a clause that reads (I) "...also agreed to indemnify and hold harmless defendant from any and all claims, demands, damages, actions, causes of action or suits of any kind or nature whatsoever related to the litigation." But I read this to mean future lawsuits, not giving my opinion on the company.

Yeah, those statements are about as accurate as I can get, and there's honestly nothing more. But I have to say after reading through several related cases, I'm much more calm now, and frankly a bit angry. There are several sites where "frustrated website owners" were sued, and the Judges sided with them, citing its their Constitutional right to freedom of speech, and in some of the cases, the companies were ordered to pay all attorney fees, while the site stayed up. Now I can frankly careless about going to war, and have no intention of putting it back up, its just getting a little fuel from these judgements has kind of pissed me off, and there's a chance I might fight these guys for the principle (of course weighing out the costs).

 

[quincy]

You did have an indemnity clause in your settlement agreement?

This lawsuit that the company has filed against you - does it say it is for defamation, or for a breach of agreement, or both perhaps?