The California Supreme Court has ruled that Yelp can't be forced to remove negative reviews.
Here's some background on the case: In 2013, attorney Dawn Hassell said a client her firm represented defamed Hassell Law Group on Yelp by claiming that the firm "did not bother to communicate" with the client and neglected its responsibilities.
Hassell and the firm sued that client, and a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled the online statements were defamatory and said the client and Yelp had to remove them.
When the statements weren't removed, Hassell got a court order to force Yelp to remove the posts. A California appeals court upheld that court order.
Yelp took it to the California Supreme Court, saying the ruling would open the door for businesses to demand that negative reviews be removed.
The California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of Yelp.
In a blog statement, Yelp's deputy general counsel said that online publishers in California "cannot be lawfully forced to remove third-party speech through enterprising abuses of the legal system."
According to the Associated Press, Hassell's attorney said that her client was considering taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
