can someone sue you for defamation of character if you write a review for their professional services on an open forum?
Question Details: I had a photographer shoot my wedding. He has provided me with unsatisfactory services and I posted this on a wedding forum website. He than turned around and told me he can sue me for defamation of character when all the things i said are true about his services. Does his threat have any merit?
Business Law Answers
It depends exactly what you said, and it might depend on exactly what you can prove.
Defamation suits, to win, have to be based on harmful false statements of fact. So, if everything you posted was no more than opinion ("The album cover looked tacky to me"), there's no defamation. IF all you did was post opinions, there's no true-or-false to them, and there's no lawsuit.
Truth as a defense, though, can be tricky. Because that depends not on what you "know," but on what you can prove with admissible evidence.
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