wachen LLC secures $924,996 jury verdict in fake online review case

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At the conclusion of a five-day trial, a Virginia jury awarded a Wachen LLC client $924,996 in compensatory and punitive damages stemming from a fake online Tripadvisor review. The successful plaintiff is a massage therapist at a top DC-area hotel spa who was suspended as a result of an anonymous Tripadvisor review accusing him of predatory behavior in a massage encounter that never happened.

Although the Spa concluded after investigating that the review was fake and reinstated the therapist after eight days, the therapist sustained substantial reputational, emotional, and economic harm. The challenge in trying to hold the anonymous reviewer accountable was to determine her identity. After filing a "Jane Doe" lawsuit on behalf of the therapist, Wachen LLC's David Wachen served subpoenas to Tripadvisor, Verizon Wireless, Verizon FiOS, and Yahoo. Connecting the dots from the information obtained led to the culprit, who was then named as the defendant in the defamation lawsuit.

The defendant initially denied posting the review and then, when faced with the subpoenaed evidence, switched positions, claiming she did not recall whether she had posted the review. The jury, however, found otherwise--concluding that the defendant had submitted the defamatory review, that the review was false, and that her actions had caused $324,996 in damage. The jury also awarded $600,000 in punitive damages, to punish the defendant and to serve as an example to prevent others from making such fake online reviews in the future.

Following the verdict, Wachen said, "We greatly appreciate that the jury was able to see through the defendant's refusal to take responsibility for her destructive, malicious conduct and to not only order her to compensate our client for the serious harm she caused, but also punish her for her bad behavior."