Negative Yelp review of realtor turns into legal nightmare

A woman has to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees after she posted a negative review online about her former realtor and broker, even though she believes it's her right to free speech.

SAN DIEGO - A woman has to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees after she posted a negative review online about her former realtor and broker, even though she believes it's her right to free speech.

This has become such an issue that a state law has been passed to protect your right to complain.

"It's nothing short of bullying,” said Siobhan Graham. “School yard bullying in the real world."

Graham said they retaliated after she posted negative Yelp reviews about her experience.

"I feel strongly that I have a right to free speech and I need to defend myself," she said.

Full story at ABC10:

[MrJreed]

I hope this was worth it to the realtor.. Instead of 16 people reading some random yelp review now 100s of thousands of proople will see this on the news and youtube… smart

[TheHeretic]

Closed over 200 homes without complaint? Well, you see what happens to people who complain.

[bonniehenderson]

Perhaps there were no complaints because they were bullied to keep quiet. 😕

[rachelfarley]

I bet she's really regretting her lawsuits now after all the people that's watch the news!

[bigdog]

Thats Crazy. People have the right to express their opinion. She didn't even say anything BAD about the company. I wouldnt have paid Shi@@# for any legal fee's, If anything they should have been paying ME $8, 000 to take down my reviews. Throw me in Jail, sue me, she should have won that battle. I've also had a bad experience with Yelp cause I wouldnt pay $1, 000 +, a month for their paid advertising. Then after they kept bugging me and found out that I created my own free listing, all of the sudden my 1st 5 star review Disappeared. Her situation is much worse. Just found out that I'm not they only victim, just from watching these YouTube Vids. Thanks for the INfo. Blessings to that young lady!

[ferrelx]

i had a Realtor tell me my brand new roof didn't add any value to my home i was listing..i told him.."tell that to someone who has to spend thousands of dollars out of their own pocket to re roof their home a few years after they buy it"..at the end of the consultation it was indicated 9% was the fee..the listing was going to be for $155, 000..his end would of been 13, 950..i got up didn't say a word and left the building..the moron still calls after 2 months wanting my business..the house sold within 3 weeks for 157, 227 and i didn't pay any fees whatsoever..zillow kicks ass !! and Realtors are vampires..

[rrudydedogg]

A realtor told me years ago that sueing and being sued was part and parcel of the realty business. A good realtor is priceless but sadly my personal experience says that they are in the minority. Yelp should offer at least some assistance to this lady. Failure to do so discredits the Yelp site.

[lljl]

Who cares how many freaking houses she's sold!!! We're all those clients satisfied happy clients? Maybe, maybe not. I know agents who throw the "Code of ethics" out the window and use clients (sellers and buyers) as ladder steps just to reach the "top producers" list!!! Friends have shared with me the BAD/PRESSURED experience they had with the bad apple/agents! All they see is dollar signs and praises for selling so many houses! Disclaimer: not all agents are bad agents. Hats off to the honest agents!!!

[HypeTv]

I just went on the realtor yelp and now she has all bad reviews, her law suite def back fire

[brandyb]

I bet she hasn't had any complaints in her 10 years because she sues the shit outta people and strong arms them into taking down their negative reviews. My husband is a business owner. In 10 years he has had 2 bad reviews and one that wasn't bad but it wasn't glowing, it was a 1 star, anyways, he responded to the reviews very professionally and didn't get into a back and forth with them. We actually were hired by one woman who said she chose him over another company we were equally in the running for BECAUSE of how he responded to his negative review. She said he was very professional and wasn't disrespectful and she just got a good overall feeling about him from the way he handled his negative review. I thought that was really cool. When someone goes to these legnths to supress a bad review then it stands there are valid issues the customer had working with her.

[betunia]

How can you complain to make everybody sign a non-disclosure agreement no wonder why she had no complaints

[JS-fbww]

0:11 They had to pass a law in CA to protect reviewers right to free and truthful speech without fear of retribution??!! Something already exists that does that very same thing... It's called the *First Amendment!!!* Smh.

[thehollyannrose]

Maybe be a better broker, if you don't want people giving you negative reviews 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[repnatl]

Well damn if they start sueing over Google reviews I'm screwed lol

[Legacy-swbv]

Hope those reviews stay up. People deserve to know the the truth of what they're getting into. If you don't want people writing true bad reviews, don't give them anything to complain about.

[Jimmy-phxn]

Realtors are awful. Mine sucked. He did nothing but show up on closing day to collect his check.

[badfox]

Dealt with alot of realtors and most were bottom feeders.

[jasona]

Take Yelp Reviews with the 'Grain of Salt'. Good reviews are often bias, written by friends and family. Bad reviews, are often written by jerks that are just never satisfied. It can be hard to read between the lines sometimes.

[Noone]

My experience on Yelp was bad, and I eventually got kicked off. They only selectively apply their own rules. I had another user review my review and insult me. Pointed out exactly where in their guidelines it did not comply. They sent me a form email saying they weren’t deleting the review. Then, I had my attorney write them and point out the same thing in their guidelines, and they sent the same form letter. Afterwards, when the moderators had nothing better to do, they started targeting reviews I left and randomly deleting them saying that I did not have experiences at those businesses. What finally got me banned is when I reposted those reviews.

[michaelvoelkl]

She should sue the Realtor for double the damages in federal court for violations her civil rights!