Winning a Defamation Case Against a Powerful Opponent
Claiming to be defamed, getting an attorney excited to represent you and winning a case in court can be extremely difficult. Beating a Goliath-like perpetrator such as Google with a defamation claim, wow, no way that is possible. Surprise: Yes, yes it is possible and its happened.
A “woman has won a second defamation case against Google, after a court found the search engine knowingly put derogatory comments about her online,” reports ABC News Australia.
Read that again for encouraging details: A woman…won. She won…twice. Versus…Google. For the company putting comments about her online that were derogatory.
Google’s absurd defense? Get ready for this laugher: "innocent dissemination."
Briefly, some details: A “court found the search engine knowingly put derogatory comments about her online despite her winning $100,000 from the company in a similar case in 2015.
“South Australia's Supreme Court found that Janice Duffy, 66, was defamed by the comments in search results published on google.com.au in 2015 and 2016.”
The judge said Google was not conducting itself in a way that was responsible (my word, his inference) and that was part of the basis of reasoning behind the legal judgment. He communicated that “search results on google.com.au were defamatory, and that Google was ‘proven to have participated in the communication’ of the results ‘so as to render it liable as a secondary publisher.’”
The bad news for Ms. Duffy? “Google will not have to pay damages for search results on google.com because the judge found it could not be proved beyond the balance of probabilities that they were seen in Australia.”
While Ms. Duffy is relieved, this decade-plus fight has taken it’s toll on her, from not being able to receive the help she needed and was deserving of receiving, to the madness of the situation.
"You try to take Google to court and 11 years later Google have spent several millions of dollars trying to force you to go away and back down,” she said.
Despite that moral crime against Duffy, she didn’t back down, played by the rules and earned a victory.
Professional Observation
Wanting to defend yourself against what is a legal and moral wrong is stressful, overwhelming and can lead to feelings of hopelessness and-or fear when you are faced with a massive power imbalance, which in this case is Google and its billions of dollars, corporate lawyers and unethical and intimidating behavior.
Yet this brave, determined person decided it was worth trying anyway, persevering through adversity and believing legal remedy was possible.
Ms. Duffy may not have earned everything she wanted but she did receive some welcomed level of vindication and will receive some financial compensation. She believed in and pursued a better outcome even when the odds were heavily stacked against her.
With reputation damage, that is often what is required, whether it be through the legal system or responding outside of court in a poised, moral, focused and strategic manner through reputation services. Court can provide relief at times. Yet sometimes that door is closed to people. It’s hurtful but a sobering reality.
In those cases, all is not necessarily lost. Reach out to me when you don’t yet want to give up on relief and improvement from a painful situation.
Michael Toebe is the founder and specialist at Reputation Quality, assisting and serving successful people with further building reputation as an asset or responsibly and ethically protecting, restoring or reconstructing its strength.
