Business can't get access to identities of Yelp reviewers in Virginia suit, state high court says
The Virginia Supreme Court has thwarted a business owner’s attempt to force Yelp to turn over the names or seven people who posted negative reviews.
The state supreme court ruled on Thursday that Virginia courts did not have the power to hold Yelp in contempt for failing to turn over the names because it wasn’t a party to the suit and the Yelp database wasn’t located in Virginia. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a story, while How Appealing links to the decision (PDF) and additional coverage, including this story by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Virginia law allows state courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over nonresident parties to a lawsuit, but it does not allow state courts to compel nonresident nonparties to produce documents located outside of Virginia, the opinion said.
Hadeed Carpet Cleaning had claimed in its defamation suit that the people who posted negative reviews did not appear to be actual customers. Business owner Joe Hadeed suspected the reviews were posted by competitors.
A lawyer for Yelp, Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen, said the company should prevail if Hadeed asks California courts to turn over the reviewers’ names.
“If Hadeed turns to California courts to learn the identities of its critics, those courts will require it to show evidence to meet the well-accepted First Amendment test for identifying anonymous speakers,” Levy told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “And so far, Hadeed has not come close to providing such evidence.”
