Briefing Begins in Hassell v Bird (Yelp)

  Last June, the Court of Appeal upheld a trial court ruling requiring Yelp to remove defamatory reviews that defendant Ava Bird had been ordered to remove.  In September, the Supreme Court agreed to the hear case.  Yelp’s initial brief and the Hassell Law Group’s answer have been filed.  Yelp is expected to file a reply brief…

Law Business

Cal Appeals Court Upholds Yelp Review Removal Order

Yelp Loses Challenge to Removal Order In a major victory for defamation plaintiffs, a Calfornia Court of Appeal has upheld an order requiring Yelp to remove defamatory reviews.  Dawn Hassell and the Hassell Law Group (“Hassell”) obtained a judgment holding defendant Ava Bird liable for defamation and requiring her to remove defamatory reviews she posted about Hassell on Yelp.…

Santa Monica

Presenting on Reputation Management to SMBA

Today, I am speaking at the Santa Monica Bar Association’s First Friday lunch series on Internet Law Developments Relating to IP and Reputation Management, along with Dan Cislo, Esq. (2004-2005 SMBA President).  It runs from 12:00 to 1:3o at Wokcano, 1413 5th Street, Santa Monica. Click here to Register Registration in advance is $30, which includes a…

Ninth Circuit: Yelp Practices Not Quite Extortion

Ninth Circuit: Yelp’s Practices Not Quite Extortion Yelp has emerged as one of the leaders among review sites, with 120 million monthly users (including 53 million mobile visitors) in 26 countries it moved into profitability last quarter. Throughout, Yelp has had it critics from the Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern who famously called Yelp* a “tremendous forum for a…

Reputation Place: Yelp Reviewer Outed and Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet

Virginia Court Orders Revealing Yelp Reviewers A Virginia appeals court ordered Yelp to reveal the identity of a reviewer of an Alexandria carpet cleaner where the business presented evidence to cast doubt that the reviewer was ever a customer. Generally, a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is aperson’s opinion about a…

Craigslist Complaint Against Data Scrapers Survives Motion to Dismiss

CRAIGSLIST WEB SCRAPING CASE CONTINUES BIG QUESTION ON WHETHER CFAA BARS ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION The court refused to dismiss much of Craigslist’s claim against data scrapers.  With respect to the CFAA claims, the court noted that  The parties have not addressed a threshold question of whether the CFAA applies where the wner of an…

In the Courts: Yelp, Gripe and Defendant Balsam

Yelp Faces Class Actions Over Extortion Claims Yelp faces two separate class actions for offering to bury bad user reviews for businesses who bought advertising and deleting positive reviews for businesses that did not.  Legal commentators are uncertain if the claim has legs, but the facts could be enough to persuade a judge to find…