Bruce S. Rosen Obtains Dismissal Under New Jersey’s Anti-SLAPP Law of Libel Complaint Regarding Online Review of Law Firm
Bruce S. Rosen, partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., obtained another dismissal of a lawsuit under New Jersey’s anti-SLAPP law on behalf of a client who had done an online review of a law firm.
Jeremy McPherson had posted a review on Google criticizing the Law Offices of Rajeh Saadeh – which represented his adversary in a real estate transaction -- the law firm sued McPherson for libel. In response Rosen filed an order to show cause under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, commonly known as the anti-SLAPP law (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), which Is designed to protect defendants from meritless lawsuits intended to intimidate them for exercising their free speech rights and provides a fee award to defendants who successfully prevail.
Rosen has represented others whom law firms have sued over online critiques, including obtaining a dismissal of a complaint under the anti-SLAPP law against the Lento Law Firm which sued its own client, as well as in a lawsuit brought by a defendant company against a law firm for posting details about a law suit it had filed. Both of these cases included awards of legal fees and are now on appeal.
The case was featured in the New Jersey Law Journal article titled, “A Law Firm Sued Its Online Critique—But Now It Faces a Penalty.”
Rosen told the Law Journal that suits filed by lawyers against people who criticize them in online reviews show the lawyers do not understand defamation law.
"Defamation is tough. It's not so easy because of freedom of speech. In the balance between reputation protection and freedom of speech, it tilts toward freedom of speech," Rosen said. "And in these particular cases, the judges aren't finding it defamatory. The first thing you need to show [to fall under the anti-SLAPP law] is that it's a matter of public concern. If you're writing about a lawsuit that's ongoing, that's automatically a matter of public concern."
"The problem is that people think they could do it,” he added. "But defamation is arcane. It's got a lot of twists and turns and it's not so easy to draft a defamation complaint, especially in this state now, with anti-SLAPP. It's just not so easy but they keep going at it, because I have a slew of them right now."
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