That stipulation allows the attorney to get a court order that he or she can use to request that Google and Microsoft, which runs the Bing and Yahoo search engines, no longer link to a defamatory post. In many instances, a defamation defendant will admit that his or her Internet post was false in an out-of-court settlement, Ingle said. Not all defamation cases are as involved as Petta's. Petta's comments about the Carlottis are either true or legally protected opinions, Lorenz said. Ingle is working with Matthew Kelly and Kevin McCoy to represent the Carlottis and Desert Palm Surgical Group on Petta's appeal of the 2011 jury verdict.Īttorney Ryan Lorenz of Clark Hill, representing Petta, said the case is set for oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals. "You can do a lot of damage with the Internet," he said. They specialize in finding the identity of people who make false allegations and typically can get search engines like Google and Microsoft to de-index or remove links to defamatory statements, Ingle said. "If Delaware is the capital of corporate law, then Arizona is the new capital of Internet law," said Jordan Rose of the Rose Law Group in Scottsdale.Ĭhristopher Ingle and Logan Elia, who developed a specialty in Internet-related defamation cases, cyberpiracy and cybersquatting over the past three years, joined the Rose Law Group in January to further develop that niche. GoDaddy requires a court order to provide information about an anonymous person posting on a website that it hosts. That allows attorneys to file claims here against unknown defendants if GoDaddy is the registrar for a website that included a defamatory post. Plus, the top domain-name registrar, GoDaddy, is based in Scottsdale.įor legal purposes, a website exists where it is registered.
San Francisco-based Yelp, a consumer-review site at the center of a closely watched Virginia case, has a presence here with several hundred employees at its downtown Scottsdale office.
The Dirty gossip site was on the losing end of a $338,000 defamation judgment in Kentucky last year in federal court that is under appeal. Ripoff Report is based in Tempe and the Dirty started as in 2007. The Valley, with ties to a number of controversial websites, is at ground zero of this shifting legal landscape. The online posts, sometimes accurate and sometimes false and defamatory, have put businesses, doctors and other professionals in a harsh and unwelcome spotlight.Īttorneys are finding no shortage of plaintiffs and defendants in defamation cases as the courts struggle to balance free-speech rights with legal protections from false claims. Petta's case is an extreme example of defamation cases that have surfaced in the digital age as websites give consumers a chance to share their often-anonymous complaints to a wider audience. "There is no point in doing a lot of work since my pay is taken from me." "I'm volunteering now for a dog-rescue group, working 30 to 40 hours," said Petta, who previously had a business selling promotional products. She is appealing the Maricopa County Superior Court jury verdict, asserting that truth is a defense for her comments and that the Carlottis did not prove the more-than-$1 million loss of income they claimed was the result of Petta's online complaints.
"My life and emotions have been turned upside down," Petta said in a recent interview. The Carlottis' attorneys filed a defamation complaint and won a $12 million judgment in 2011 against Petta, who has since lost her home and filed for bankruptcy as she struggles to pay her debt. The 51-year-old Scottsdale businesswoman and jazz-piano entertainer was so angry that she posted remarks on consumer websites to complain about her rhinoplasty and treatment at the Desert Palm Surgical Group, a Scottsdale practice of Dr. Sherry Petta did not like the results of two surgeries to reshape her nose and a laser procedure to smooth her face more than six years ago.
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