Counter suit (defamation) against our small claims suit?

[norwyn]

We left our family timepiece (a medevial antique) for routine service. It usually takes few hours however next day we called and the person taking the call admitted that they accidentally dropped it and will be fixing it and the shop owner will be reaching out to us for more details but he did not. After several days of visiting and not finding him at the shop, finally we did meet, but by then he refused to acknowledge the statement of his employee and gave us an outrageous 1,105.00 bill otherwise we can forget the timepiece. (We recently moved to LA from TX and have the receipts of yearly service for $59-79)

Upon hearing all this we recently filed a small claims motion to have it recovered but it would be taking about 5 weeks. We have complete confidence in our case. However in meantime we suspect our son went online and gave his shop bad reviews (we dont even know where he wrote the bad reviews). Yesterday we received an angry call from the shop owner claiming that he will be suing us for defamation and minutes after we received an attorney notice.

Our son has said to us that he did not write anything incorrect, did NOT name anyone and simply warned others to be aware from our experience and that there is no way he could delete the comments now. We are worried about our son the most. Can he meaningfully sue us for this, drag our son in it, despite our small claim recovery for timepiece complaint which was filed days before his recent counter-claim, as well the fact the online reviews are anonymous and are just meant for this purpose?

[ruddy]

In America you can sue anyone you want, that's the law. But it takes money to file a defamation suite. He would need a lawyer, collect evidence, have you served, get a court date, blah blah blah. And in the end, what is he going to do. He screwed up the clock, the truth is a defense. Even if he won, generally they just make you stop. His business isn't worth millions, you can't have cost him that much business. And generally speaking, everyone pays their own court costs (I know they show that all the time on tv. In the real world, Judges don't go for it.)

Have no contact with the shop owner. Go to court. If he tries to bring it up, the judge won't hear it, as it is not the action at issue.

He's blowing smoke. Ignore it. If you get served, then call an attorney. But you won't It takes several hundred dollars to get a court case going.

[donough]

Anybody can file suit but I wouldn't expect this one to go very far. Tell the owner and the attorney to kiss a very delicate part of your anatomy.

[unss94]

Depends on the age of your son. If he is an adult, the shop keeper called the wrong person since you didn't do it. If he is under 18 you are responsible for his actions.

If nothing was said that was untrue, you have no worries regardless, except that your son has put you in the place of needing an attorney to speak for you now. Of course, should you win, you can get attorney fees back.

Good luck.

[chadburne48]

Your argument with the shop and their argument with your son over defamation are two separate issues. In general, valid review and criticism is protected from libel claims. It is perfectly legal to say "Don't shop here it is a terrible shop". It is NOT legal to say "This shop broke our clock and refused to fix it" unless you can prove that this happened.

f he made specific, factual claims which he cannot support, he could be sued. However, in addition to showing that such claims were made, AND who made them, AND that they were intended to harm their business, they must also show that actual harm was done. It is very difficult (and expensive) to prove libel in this sort of situation.

To be safe, I would suggest your son delete the post he made. That alone will stop the case. If he cannot, he might be looking at a lawsuit.