Biegel v. Norberg [1]

In February 2008, chiropractor Steven Biegel sued former patient Christopher Norberg and various John Doe defendants over a critical review that Norberg posted to consumer review website Yelp.com [2]. According to the Complaint [3], the review accused Biegel of being dishonest and of engaging in fraudulent billing practices. Cmplt. ¶ 9 [3].

After Biegel's counsel threatened to sue, Norberg removed his review from Yelp.  Biegel sued anyway, bringing claims of defamation and false light invasion of privacy against Norberg in his original Complaint and the (apparently identical) Amended Complaint [4].

In January 2009, the parties settled the case on undisclosed terms.  Norberg replaced an earlier Yelp posting in which he said he'd been sued with the following posting:

A misunderstanding between both parties led us to act out of hand. I chose to ignore Dr. Biegel's initial request to discuss my posting. In hindsight, I should have remained open to his concerns. Both Dr. Biegel and I strongly believe in a person's right to express their opinions in a public forum. We both encourage the Internet community to act responsibly.