Does anyone know what the outcome was for the ozbargain member who posted a forum topic regarding some negative reviews towards a legal firm. Subsequently the post was taken down.
I believe even ozbargain were threatened with legal action
Defamation OzBargain Case
Gotchas on 25/11/2023 - 19:08
Last edited 25/11/2023 - 19:10
Last edited 25/11/2023 - 19:10
Comments
That’s the one. Did anyone get sued for damages or was it just bluff
No one got sued, from memory they must have scared the crap out of OP as they changed their tune, then had the thread closed.
Sounds like a Boat and Motor deal?
Were you at the meetup today? I was just chatting with people about the said case.
No one get sued, i.e. it never gets to the court. However lots of threatening letters from lawyers fired at both the affected user & OzBargain, including some ridiculous claims. Our legal counsel returned fire with "logic & reason", and haven't heard from them afterwards, not even an email saying they are dropping the case.
Funny what happens when you stand up to !@#$s trying to bully you…
Probably would be good for OZB if it went to court, you'd make the news and papers and that's like a million dollars free advertising for OZB. Probably the lawyers knew it would and could never go to court and just did what they were paid to do.
No wasn’t at the meet up.
Did it cost much regarding the legals on affected users and ozbargain
Low 4-figure for us, and hoping it costs a lot more for the threatening party.
It's not defamation if it's true.
Case closed.
Yeah truth is the ultimate defence to defamation. They may be threatening to go to open court, but it's actually the very last thing they want to see happen.
Technically justification is a defence to defamation.
A statement can be prima facie defamatory, but a defence of justification - if proven - is a complete defence to the claim.
As Austria says below, I always tell people a defo claim is a 2 edged sword - you might get vindication, but you might also bring the original statement to the attention of a much wider audience.You might have to prove it’s true in court - not cheap
Statement like this is not helpful, and I think IANAL should be declared for advice such as this.
Yup, I am not a lawyer either.
Someone can still be defamed when it's true. However the law court might not award damage to the plaintiff if the court found there's a substantial truth about the statement.
Defending a defamation suit can be quite costly in time, money & lots of mental stress as well — and there's still no guarantee that the judge would side with you when you subjectively think that your statement is true. Often it's just easier to bend over the demand and unpublish the defaming statements. Obviously that's the whole point behind all these threatening letters.
Is unpublishing a statement the first step to resolve the dispute - or can defamation proceedings/court still proceed
It's not defamation if it's true.
Case closed.In Australia? Not even close, mate.
Care to explain then?
Genuine question - how long have you got?
There is an insane Defamation case involving the ex-NSW Deputy Premier whereby he sued someone for alleging he was corrupt, when the DP himself admitted several times in engaging in pork-barrelling, which is defined as corruption.
It's barely the tip of the iceberg but a very funny saga to go down, if you want to know more.
The trouble is for a long time the defamation cases were a way for the rich and powerful to keep “little people” from talking about their experience. Some of outcomes of these cases were just appalling. However, a few high profile cases have backfired, recently, so people are becoming more circumspect in actually suing rather than just threatening to. Especially when you then have to deal with being cross examined in court.
This one is a corker. If had just STFU then most people would’ve ignored a few negative reviews.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-win-for-bad-re…
Guy sounds like a control freak. One trip advisor reviews mentioned they had the power and water turned off during their stay as he thought they were using too much. Looks like he has no control over the trip advisor reviews.
probably talking about this one?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/12600605/redir