What if you find a negative, even offensive Google review about yourself, your business, your project or your services? One thing is if it is well deserved, but what if it is just a plain attempt on your reputation — because of unfair competition or some personal conflict? Is it defamation? Does it count as spreading of written allegations in order to provoke unpleasant and unfavourable sentiments about you?
Balancing fundamental rights
As usual, two fundamental rights affect the answer: freedom of expression and protection of dignity and reputation. According to the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal of Quebec, even a somewhat exaggerated and harsh opinion is not equal to a defamatory one. What is important, is the effect on other people — including inferences and insinuations. The questions is what a “reasonable person” would think of you after reading some Google review?
In this sense, a ridiculously rude and exaggerated Google review is potentially less defamatory, as a “reasonable person” would not probably consider such a review to be true.
What is also important to take a simple review as defamatory is an element of fault of the author. One would need to prove that the author intentionally or negligently damaged your reputation without having any valid and legitimate grounds to do so.
What one needs to prove in Court
To sum up, to make a case for defamation, the complainant needs to prove that the negative information was spread wide enough to cause some actual damage and that the damage was, in fact, caused (not just “possible”). Then it should be proved that the damage was caused directly by the information spread (that the key persons or the public in general actually believed it) and that there was a fault on the part of the person spreading the information.
Allen Madelin Law firm has dealt with great many cases of defamation. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact our lawyers. You can make an appointment by phone (514) 904 4017 or via email [email protected].
