Negative internet posting and e-mail - Possible Libel

[cheaterhater201]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? - Washington State

A negative review was placed on Yelp, which questioned an individual’s moral fibers. It was placed on his business page. (Background) - This individual is a married man and he made several attempts to invite another married woman out to his private residence. The woman's husband found this out from some text messages on a cell phone. After placing the negative review, the husband then copied his review and emailed it to all of the individual’s co-workers. The individual is now threatening to sue the husband for libel. Should the husband be worried? What kind of penalty does this carry?

 

[quincy]

Yup. The husband who wrote the negative review and then emailed it to the businessman's coworkers should probably worry.

Defamation is a civil, not criminal, action. If the husband is sued for libel by the businessman, and the businessman wins his suit, the husband stands to lose a lot of dollars. Also, if the husband's wife works for this businessman, she will probably be out of a job, which is the loss of more dollars.

Any worry would be compounded if the husband cannot prove the truth of the facts he stated or implied in his review and the emails.

 

[cheaterhater201]

There are text messages that prove that the invitations were happening.

One thing that the husband did was post the review and send the email under an alias. How difficult is it to trace an email back to someone, if they used a false name and info to set it up?

 

[quincy]

The difficulty depends on how adept the husband was at hiding his identity and, because he is already being threatened with a libel suit, I think it is safe to assume he was not especially adept. The extended header on an email often reveals an "anonymous" sender's identity.

In addition, I imagine there were not too many people who had access to the text messages sent to the husband's wife.

Even with text messages that show the businessman invited the husband's wife to his place of residence, this does not mean that the businessman had a nefarious purpose. Perhaps the businessman's wife was to be present. Perhaps this was a business meeting of some sort. Perhaps the businessman had something he needed the wife to pick up.

Unless the text messages state clearly that the invitation was for a less-than-honorable purpose, implying the text messages were can be defamatory. And, even if the purpose of the texts were to entice the husband's wife over for something other than an honorable purpose, if the husband is unable to prove the businessman's intent behind the sending of the messages, he could still be legally screwed.

If you are this husband who wrote the review and sent the emails, I would consider scoping out defamation attorneys now. Have the review and the email content reviewed for a better idea of what sort of defense you may have if you are served with a complaint.

Good luck.