Florida Court Holds That “Business Rating” on BBB’s Website is Not Defamation (Home Performance v. BBB)

Defamation

In a short (and not surprising) opinion, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal held that a business rating of a “D+” on the Better Business Bureau’s website was not defamation but, instead, was a constitutionally-protected, non-actionable opinion “based on an evaluating process and a subjective opinion which was not sufficiently factual to be suspectible of proven true or false” (quote cleaned up).

Home Performance v. BBB is here.

Defamation
What is the Proper Venue for an Alleged Defamatory Facebook Post in Florida? (James Lowery III v. Shane McBee)

A Martin County resident alleged posted a defamatory Facebook post which was read by a third party in neighboring Palm Beach County. Where is the proper venue? According to James Cullen Lowery, III v. Shane McBee, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal held that “there was no“injury” to Plaintiff until …

Defamation
Is an alleged defamatory statement by CEO to Board of Directors considered “publication” so that it is actionable? (Hullick v. Gibraltar)

A former officer of a bank asserts that the CEO allegedly made defamatory statements about him in front of the company’s entire Board of Directors, who happened to be non-employees. Is that actionable? The new case of Jonathan Hullick v. Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust Co. and Steven D. Hayworth …

Defamation
Does a Negative Employee Review = Defamation?

There is an exception to the general rule regarding defamation when it involves “parties [who] have a mutual interest in evaluating a person’s work.”  These evaluations occur frequently: employee evaluation, customer evaluation of employees, parents’ evaluation of teachers, and former bosses evaluating former employees to prospective new employers. Under those …