Posted by Amanda Walsh
Legal experts are saying more and more companies are now taking legal action against consumers who vent online about their dissatisfaction with company services. I found a recent article on NYTimes.com by Dan Frosch which points out that social networking sites have given dissatisfied customers and clients a platform to air their complaints to many followers and friends.
In the article, 21-year-old university student in Kalamazoo, Mich., Justin Kurtz, lashed out against a local towing company after his car was towed. Kurtz was set off after paying the required $118 fee to get his car back and took his aggression out on Facebook. He created a page called “Kalamazoo Residents against T&J Towing” which drew over 800 followers within two days. Shortly after, T&T filed a defamation lawsuit against Kurtz seeking $750,000 in damages.
According to the article, “some First Amendment lawyers consider the lawsuit an example of the latest incarnation of a decades-old legal maneuver known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp.” Different states have different laws concerning Slapp, but in Michigan there is no anti-Slapp legislature. Kurtz has become quite famous and his Facebook page has now grown to 12,000 people.
I wanted to share this news with ThePRLawyer audience because Furia Rubel provides marketing and public relations services to law firms and lawyers. However, this is a reminder to everyone, in any industry, that what we say and do online is in a public forum.
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