Lawsuit over Yelp review settled

The lawsuit filed by a San Francisco chiropractor against a patient who wrote a negative review of him on Yelp was settled on Friday, according to the attorney for the defendant.

Christopher Norberg reached a settlement with the chiropractor who sued him for libel over a negative Yelp review.

(Credit: Christopher Norberg)

"This case was settled with the mutual satisfaction of both parties," said Michael Blacksburg, who represented patient Christopher Norberg. The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential and the March trial date will be canceled, he said.

The case had spurred debate over how to best balance the rights of consumers to express themselves on community forum sites with the rights of businesses to protect their reputation.

Shortly after the court-required mediation hearing was completed Friday afternoon, Norberg replaced an earlier Yelp posting in which he said he had been sued by chiropractor Steven Biegel with a short posting that reads:

"A misunderstanding between both parties led us to act out of hand. I chose to ignore Dr. Biegel's initial request to discuss my posting. In hindsight, I should have remained open to his concerns. Both Dr. Biegel and I strongly believe in a person's right to express their opinions in a public forum. We both encourage the Internet community to act responsibly."

Norberg was advised by his attorney to refer all requests for comment to his lawyer. Calls to Biegel and his lawyer, Eric Nordskog, were not immediately returned on Friday.

"I'm really glad for both of them that they can put this dispute behind them," said Blacksburg. "I hope this begins the public conversation on how to communicate using the resources of the Internet."

Biegel sued Norberg for defamation nearly a year ago over a posting in which Norberg had suggested that Biegel's billing practices were dishonest because he had billed Norberg's insurance company an amount that was four times what he had quoted to Norberg for two office visits in 2006, according to court documents. Biegel had allegedly told Norberg that the price differential was due to the additional time and effort his office spends dealing with the insurers.

Biegel's lawyer contended that Norberg's comments on Yelp were statements of fact and thus libelous. Blacksburg maintained that the comments were opinion and therefore were constitutionally protected speech.

Norberg replaced an earlier review on Yelp with this posting after he and his former chiropractor settled the defamation lawsuit.

(Credit: Yelp)

[vurbano]

The chiropractor is gouging the insurance providers. In the end we all pay for this.

[humanssssss]

Why you worry about the insurance providers?!? When their bottom line hurt, they will take it from someone. If consumers are stupid to pay high premium to said insurance provider that charge a high price, that's the consumer's fault. There's a reason why there are competition in the marketplace, that no one insurance provider can dictate price.<br /><br />"In the end we all pay for this." Yeah right, in the end, if you buy insurance, you pay for it. If it wasn't for govt dictating that we NEED insurance, insurance providers wouldn't have that leg up in pricing consumers till they bleed. When insurance providers are bleeding, what happen? Look at AIG, the government comes in with over $100B to bail that company out. I switched out of AIG about 6 months ago, and I had a few friends did too after they raise their price by 15%. You think I'll stick around an insurance providers that will bleed my pocketbook. No way! There are competition in the marketplace that I can to. I'm glad.

[tecueje]

This is unbelievable! <br />Have you heard of the Quarterly called "Consumers Checkbook"? This magazine is precisely for that purpose: You detail the services rendered by companies and individuals alike to warn other potential customers of scams and bad services by name!!!!!! <br />I had a similar experience with a foot "Dr." He shaved 3 callouses off my feet. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes and I was gone. A month later I got a copy of the bill from BlueShield Bluecross submitted by the foot "Dr.' He charged Bluecross $190.00 dlls. of which he received $125.00 dlls. net, plus my copayment of $15.00 dlls. = $140.00 dlls.!!! When I called BlueShield to complain, they said it was O.K. and that there were others that charged much more than that. <br />Get a pedicure it will cost you $35 to $45 and the service is going to amaze you!

[skizyx]

One small detail that you might want to note - truth is an absolute defense to both slander (spoken) and libel (written).

[seb33sf]

Agreed. I suspect that the original Yelp review included some hard facts (billing four times the amount originally quoted) but also some speculation (general dishonesty and overbilling of insurance companies). That being said, I would probably back away from any Yelp review if threatened with a lawsuit, simply because of the exhorbitant time and expense of securing a defense lawyer, combined with the threat of losing everything if the plaintiff won. Lawsuits against individuals are really unbalanced in this regard - plaintiffs often have lawyers working on contingency, but defendants can lose a lifetime of savings to legal bills even if they win. The pressure to settle must be intense. Hence a possibly-valid accusation becomes a wishy-washy "misunderstanding" and Michael Blacksburg can now only speak through his attorney. What a shame.

[jCounsel]

Here is the rub I have with the article...<br /><br />To win a libel suit, you need to prove three things:<br /><br />1. The statement made by the "offender" was made to another person (third party);<br />2. The statement made refers to the person suing (the plaintiff); and<br />3. The statement made must be defamatory.<br /><br />The last item, the statement must be defamatory, means that the statement must be a false statement. So, people should not be suing folks for saying "the truth" because the law should not allow them to win in court. Of course, the mileage provided by your legal counsel may vary...<br /><br /><br /><br />Anyone call the insurer to get their opinion? Amazing to think the Doctor is going to bill you for his office's problems in collecting form the insurance company. I mean, what if the doctor's staff is incompetent? Why should the patient or the patient's insurance have to pay for that "problem?"

[Christine__Baker]

I am also being sued by a doctor. Dr. Tameira Hollander got a court order requiring that I remove my main blog and I only posted a LINK to the site owned by her former patient's husband. <br /> <br />I never claimed that Dr. Hollander almost killed his wife, I only recommend the site containing these allegations because it was so well done. <br /> <br />My blog is still down and I'm looking for an attorney to get the court order vacated and to counter sue for malicious prosecution and to look into why the judge ordered the removal of my blog WITHOUT any documentation of their obviously FALSE allegations. <br /> <br />Not to mention that their process server TERRORIZED me and intruded on my private property despite the no trespassing signs. <br /> <br />I don't know if it's ok to post links here, but searching for "Tameira Hollander litigation" will get you to my new litigation blog and news release.

[Janet_upt]

I am personally documenting that Yelp has been removing every positive review within 24 hours after they started calling me weekly for money. They even removed a 5 star review posted 10 hours prior and double listed my only negative review which happens to not even be by an actual client but by a disgruntled "elite" yelper and always stays up. They are manipulating the reviews and extorting business owners for monthly payments. I will be filing a formal complaint.