Hugh: Canadian Man Ordered to Pay $90,000 for Defamation After Posting Bad Reviews Online

Be careful what you type. That’s what one British Columbia man learned recently after a defamation case was decided against him. A court has ordered Tyler Ginther to pay a sum of $90,000 after some reviews he posted online were determined untrue and malicious. The problems arose from an order he placed with a family-run lumber business. The details of the order were changed several times over the course of discussion between the two parties. When Ginther was ultimately unhappy with the product delivered, he accused the company of fraud and deceit. When his complaint was dismissed by his credit card company, he took to both Google and Yelp to write negative reviews of the lumber company. The comments, which contained serious accusations, survived online for years. The matter later went to court after the company said his comments were unfairly causing harm to the business, and the judge agreed, finding that the reviews were both untrue and malicious.