Apologized to business, am I at risk?

I manage a business and trash talked another local business for some petty reasons - I would dissuade my customers from visiting their shop and spread some stuff that was exaggerated about the quality of their food/food service environment.

Anyway, for reasons, I had a change of heart and felt guilty. Although I don't know if the owner knew that I was actively bad mouthing his restaurant, I went in there today, asked for his contact info from the guy at the counter, and emailed him an apology for bad mouthing his store.

A friend issued a red flag saying that I could get sued for defamation to compensate him for business lost. Is this true? If it is I'm fucked because I spelled it out in my apology email.

Anyone know anything about how this would work? My friend said that he could use my letter as evidence that I hurt his business and that could cause legal trouble for me.

I haven't heard back from the owner yet and I"m kind of flipping out. Please tell me Yoda is right.

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I wish we had a mod to ban these bait threads

Yoda couldn't even tell a sith lord after meeting him multiple times. You are fucked OP.

You're fucking retarded if you put shit like that in writing

Obviously a bait thread, but uh... I'll take it cereal just for the educations of other anons.

This is pretty much the textbook definition of defamation.

That being said, it's probably not worth this guy's time or money to serve you and follow through with the case. Defamation cases are notoriously hard to win not because they're hard to prove but because it's hard to quantify actual damages.

I'm incredibly litigious, and I actually love serving people and dragging them to court. But if I were in that guys shoes and I received your email, I'd have to stop and think...

"OK at best this guy cost me maybe a few thousand dollars in business. It's going to cost me at least that much to bring a case on him worth no guarantee of success or recouping any substantial amount of money..."

I'd probably just let it go, honestly. And I'm not one to let anything go, but it's just not worth the time, money, or energy. I'd thank you for your honesty, remind you that I've got the e-mail, and explain to you that we can put this whole thing behind us so long as you agree not to defame me and my business further.

If I hear any more about you defaming my business, then I'm no longer as friendly as I was before and I'm serving you. Because then it is worth my time and money.

How are your coffee and recycling business user?

>could get sued for defamation to compensate him for business lost. Is this true?

Depends. Do you live in a failed state with no functioning court system? Then you are safe.

If not, you are not safe. WTF did you think?

This is not bait but I understand why you think it is. He emailed me this morning and asked me to come in and talk. He's offering me a formal opportunity to apologize, was the way he put it. I think it's drawing to a close.

If I said that as part of my daily interactions with customers I would dissuade people from going to his restaurant and did so for upwards of 8 years, would that be a problem or is it still too difficult to calculate? Or too difficult to make it worth it?

I know this is bait, but why and what for would you be suing so many people over

i actually remember this thread
old pasta is stale

Like clockwork

Some long troll post followed by an equally long response in the same writing style with the explanation that it is for everyone's education.

These threads are made by a certain trip that won't be named because we're not giving him more attention.


Don't forget the sandwich shop

oh, you think it's sandwich guy and not iFag?

For breach of contract, which are much, much easier cases to prove and to quantify damages. It happens all the time with contractors and such.

I hope that you're not suggesting we're the same poster; because we're not, and you don't have to believe me, but uh... nope.

Pretty sure they're the same person

I believe you ;^)

It's hard to say without knowing the actual circumstances and such, but I imagine that it would still be a rather fruitless venture; if I looked back over my sales or whatever and I am unable to draw a direct and significant correlation between your defamation and my bottom line, I would just leave it be so long as you've agreed to stop defaming my business.

I've got the e-mail, so as long as I have that to hold over your head and ensure that you act accordingly in the future, and it doesn't appear to have had much effect on my business as it is, then what's the use?

If, however, I pore over my paperwork and can see a direct correlation between your instances of defamation and my bottom line, then maybe, just maybe, I would act on it.

It's just so difficult to prove. Sure, the defamation happened, but how do I prove that it affected my sales in any meaningful way that cannot be contributed to other variables and factors? It's very, very difficult.

I actually had a business owner threaten to sue me for defamation because I wrote an unfavorable review of their business, and this individual gave me until 5:00 to take the review down or he would be asking his attorney to file papers.

The review is still up there today, and I have yet to be served. I can only imagine that their attorney told them exactly what I am telling you: it's just not worth it.

*attributed, not contributed

I hope this is bate, if not you are legitimately retarded and I have no idea how you've managed to run a business for any length of time

I had a competitor write fake reviews under a fake account about my business, claiming I was a rapist and stole from people.

Lawyer basically said it was going to cost upwards of 50k to force it's removal and that it was pretty much impossible to do anything to the individual

Spent the money on SEO they just posted 100 fake positive reviews and drowned it out.

Just from my experience, you have to have such an easy clear cut case to make a defamation suit actually work

You spent 50k on SEO?

I deleted it because I quoted wing post and was gonna repost it correctly, but fuck it

No, the SEO was only like $300 for everything

The 50k was what the lawyer quoted to get all the fake reviews taken down