Author Archives: Paul Levy

A Sneaky Way of Falsely Enhancing Reputation Through the Suppression of Negative Reviews

by Paul Alan Levy Techdirt carries word of an ingenious scheme that two California lawyers have been running to get unflattering reviews removed from Google’s search results without ever proving defamation in an adversary proceeding and, indeed, without risk of an adversary proceeding. Opinion Corp., which hosts the consumer review site PissedConsumer.com, noticed a suspicious […]

DC Court of Appeals Holds That Winning Anti-SLAPP Defendant Presumptively Gets Attorney Fees

Resolving an ambiguity in the District of Columbia's Anti-SLAPP law, the DC Court of Appeals held today in Doe No. 1 v. Burke that a defendant who succeeds in a special motion to quash a subpoena for the defendant's identifying information is presumptively entitled to have attorney fees awarded, absent special circumstances rendering such an […]

Trump admission of malicious reasons for suing a reporter reminds us why we need anti-SLAPP statutes

An article by Paul Farhi in this morning’s Washington Post discusses a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against the Timothy O'Brien, a financial author who wrote a book about Trump's business career.  Among other things, the book questioned whether Trump is quite as wealthy as he claims; the author’s opinion was that Trump had exaggerated […]

Self-help against non-disparagement clauses?

by Paul Alan Levy A comment to my recent blog post about Prestigious Pets, a Dallas pet care company that recently sued two of its customers for negative reviews, suggested an interesting approach for dealing with businesses that use non-disparagement clauses to block customers from posting accurate but unflattering reviews.  Although consumer advocates place hope […]

Prestigious Pets, or Litigious Pets? Dallas Pet Care Company Invokes Non-Disparagement Clause to Maintain Its Yelp Rating

by Paul Alan Levy Until recently, a Dallas, Texas pet-sitting service called Prestigious Pets enjoyed a fairly high rating on Yelp – most of the reviews gave it five stars.  There were, however, two one-star dissents, one from Michelle D and one from Tatiana N, each of whom objected, in fairly mild terms, to some […]

Ninth Circuit Opinion Applies Significant Choice-of-Law Analysis Before Striking Right of Publicity Claim Under the First Amendment

by Paul Alan Levy In an opinion that bristles with significant issues, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver asserting that a Hollywood studio could not release a film based, in part, on a fictional portrayal of important public events  in which he […]

Bar Grievance Over Allegedly Defamatory Lawyer Blog Is Dismissed on First Amendment Grounds

by Paul Alan Levy Last month I wrote about a proceeding in which Michigan’s Attorney Grievance Commission was investigating Steven Gursten, a Michigan lawyer who had criticized Dr. Rosalind Griffin, a member of the state disciplinary apparatus, for perjuring herself in expert testimony in one of his cases.  I argued that the very process of […]

“Psycho Dentist” Gordon Austin Pays $12,000 in Fees for Having Served Subpoena to Identify His Critic

by Paul Alan Levy The lawyers for Gordon Austin, the former Carrollton Georgia dentist who filed a lawsuit over the YouTube posting of a news report about his indictment for having beat his patients with a dental instrument when, insufficiently anesthetized, they cried out in pain, have now withdrawn his subpoena to identify the poster, paid […]

Can a Bar Grievance Provide Relief Against a Law Blogger When Defamation Law Will Not?

by Paul Alan Levy Dr. Rosalind Griffin, a Michigan psychiatrist who apparently derives a significant part of her income by testifying as a medical expert for parties defending against tort claims, but also serves as a member of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board — the adjudicatory arm of the Attorney Grievance Commission — has initiated […]

Must Louis Vuitton at last start paying for its trademark bullying?

by Paul Alan Levy Over the past couple of weeks, several bloggers, most impressively Rebecca Tushnet,  have published their analyses of a decision by Judge Jesse Furman granting summary judgment dismissing a lawsuit by Louis Vuitton Malletier against a tiny company called “My Other Bag” which produces a line of canvas totes that poke gentle fun at […]