2020 April 9

Tremblay v. Gordon, 2020 QCCS 1166

The Quebec Superior Court awarded the plaintiff lawyer $5,000 damages over a defamatory posting on Google in July, 2019 which negatively affected the plaintiff’s rating.  After noting that a lawyer who appears on the Internet cannot expect to have only positive reviews, the Court held that the defendant had deliberately and in bad faith attacked the lawyer’s reputation by propagating spiteful remarks the defendant knew to be false.  The court noted the short duration of the publication (10 days) and concluded the damage quickly faded.