Being threatened to be sued for writing a negative post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This actually happened to one of DH’s friends after a negative Yelp review. First, he received an email threatening a lawsuit for defamation. He ignored it, but then the cease and desist came, asking him to remove the post. He ignored it and then the summons came. He was so willful, it ended up costing him a lot of hassle and money; he actually went to court, where he lost and ultimately had to remove the post anyway. Don’t be like DH friend.

BS.

This happens all the time.

Here's a case from Fairfax: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/what-the-yelp-lawsuit-over-a-bad-review-means-for-you-195542730.html

Another: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/10/can-you-get-sued-over-a-negative-yelp-review.html?msockid=36b0c594bc99671f0c55d05cbd9c6602

And more: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/doctors-hospitals-sue-patients-who-post-negative-comments-reviews-on-social-media/95-575254639

[Anonymous]

Maybe it is just me but since people are unpredictable, I would never leave a bad review in case they are unhinged or dangerous. The bad review is not worth losing peace of mind

[Anonymous]

You didn’t name names- so nothing wrong. Even if you did, names would not affect anything. She's in business, not everyone will support it. She would have to prove libel, but she can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell her that if she contacts you again you will file for a protective order.

Then post all of that on Next Door.

She will STFU real quick if she knows what is good for her.

You can't get a protective order if someone is threatening to sue you.

I have. Twice. Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell her that if she contacts you again you will file for a protective order.

Then post all of that on Next Door.

She will STFU real quick if she knows what is good for her.

You can't get a protective order if someone is threatening to sue you.

I have. Twice. Fairfax County.

Details please.

[Anonymous]

Meh. Most people aren't unhinged and dangerous, they're just incompetent and whiny. OP didn't even name the pet sitter and has some semblance of proof. I would ignore and not take the post down (unless the pet sitter is an unemployed lawyer--in which case, yes, take it down because unemployed lawyers can be scary and do a lot of nuisance suits.)

[Anonymous]

I would take it down because there is zero upside to keeping it up. No need to fight needless battles with weirdos.

[Anonymous]

Does the contract have a no disparagement clause? If so, the dog walker is in deep do do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The dog being without water is on you. Buy a bigger dish, seriously, take some responsibility!

WTF is wrong with you? Even if I leave my dog with ten bowls of water - if I hire a pet sitter to come over at 1 PM, it’s unacceptable to me if they show up at 3 PM. Would this fly at your job?

I’m amazed anyone thinks this would be OP’s fault.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my cousin, although nothing ever came of it. In her case; she was not factual and made accusations that someone’s business didn’t have appropriate licensing. Which was untrue and realistically, my cousin would’ve had no idea whether or not the business was licensed, she was just annoyed and threw that out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wrote a negative post on Nextdoor about a negative experience I had with a pet sitter and asked for pet sitter recommendations. I stated what happened in the post but never actually stated the pet sitters name. Within 2 hours I started getting text messages from the pet sitter that they will sue me for this if it hurt their business and I should delete it asap. They were never identified and everything I wrote was true. I know this will almost certainly go nowhere but what would you do/advise please.

Laugh and write some more, IF it was justified.

However, if you are just being petty and mean, you might get loved by some lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wrote a negative post on Nextdoor about a negative experience I had with a pet sitter and asked for pet sitter recommendations. I stated what happened in the post but never actually stated the pet sitters name. Within 2 hours I started getting text messages from the pet sitter that they will sue me for this if it hurt their business and I should delete it asap. They were never identified and everything I wrote was true. I know this will almost certainly go nowhere but what would you do/advise please.

Laugh and write some more, IF it was justified.

However, if you are just being petty and mean, you might get loved by some lawyers.

I should just post a screenshot of her text. Her name was never used and she identified herself as being the issue. She seems to think anything negative is slander. Not brightest and doesn’t know the difference between slander and libel.

[Anonymous]

This is definitely a silver lining to being an attorney. You can represent yourself for free in small matters like this (nothing serious.) Most people are all talk on suing anyway because it would cost them a lot of money to sue. And I doubt a pet sitter has that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wrote a negative post on Nextdoor about a negative experience I had with a pet sitter and asked for pet sitter recommendations. I stated what happened in the post but never actually stated the pet sitters name. Within 2 hours I started getting text messages from the pet sitter that they will sue me for this if it hurt their business and I should delete it asap. They were never identified and everything I wrote was true. I know this will almost certainly go nowhere but what would you do/advise please.

Laugh and write some more, IF it was justified.

However, if you are just being petty and mean, you might get loved by some lawyers.

I should just post a screenshot of her text. Her name was never used and she identified herself as being the issue. She seems to think anything negative is slander. Not brightest and doesn’t know the difference between slander and libel.

It’s neither slander nor libel if it’s true and you can prove it. Slander just means the untrue/defamatory statement was spoken out loud and libel just means it was written. So in this case it would be libel if OP did not have proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The dog being without water is on you. Buy a bigger dish, seriously, take some responsibility!

The dog has issues and knocks it over. This is why a pet sitter is supposed to come over mid day walk and water them. Are you said pet sitter?

You know they make weighted bowls, right? You don’t take any responsibility for yourself, just blame blame blame and be passive aggressive. Good luck with that.

You certainly have a bone to pick with OP! Hee hee