You own a limousine business.
Someone posted an unflattering review.
People are saying I'm a drunk driver, I'm an alcoholic.
She's the moderator of the page. Just take it down.
I did not personally approve that post.
I was running a little bit late to take a bunch of party girls to a club.
You didn't show.
The other driver did the job within half an hour.
-You think that's right? -May I ask?
Why do I have to apologize to her?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[narrator] Now, on Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Today's case was filed in Sarasota, Florida.
Your Honor, this is case #3052 on the calendar
in the matter of Ward versus Borock.
-Thank you, Byrd. -You're welcome, Judge.
Parties have been sworn in. You may be seated.
Mr. Ward, you own a limousine business, and Ms. Borock,
you are a moderator for a Facebook group
that provides information about local businesses.
The name of your Facebook group is Sarasota, Word of Mouth.
And Mr. Ward, you're now suing Ms. Borock
because someone posted an unflattering review about your services.
She refused to take it down. You maintain
that you lost a good deal of business as a result of that post remaining up,
and you're now suing her for $5,000.
Ms. Borock, you deny owing Mr. Ward any money.
You say you didn't make the post, you didn't approve the post,
and the post was ultimately taken down.
So, you claim you owe him nothing.
Mr. Ward, how long have you been in business?
[Eddie] Over 30 years.
[Acker] You've had some very illustrious clients.
Can we put up Exhibit Eight, please?
Quite an old picture of you and our current president.
When was this taken?
-[Eddie] That was taken a long time ago. -[Acker] It was.
You both look like babies.
I worked for him for a couple years. Just recently back at Mar-a-Lago.
[Acker] You were a driver for the now president?
Yes, ma'am.
Let's get to the heart of your case. Who's Melissa Presley?
I don't know. Just a client who made a reservation with me
and then canceled it 'cause we had hurricanes.
I lost my house during the hurricane.
And we rescheduled a couple, about a week or so later,
to take a bunch of party girls out to a club, like an Uber.
So, I was running a little bit late.
She said, hey, where you at? I said I'm running a few minutes late.
I'll be there when I get there.
I had a client in the car so I couldn't answer the phone.
That's why I sent her a text back...
So, just so we're clear, Melissa Presley was someone
who had booked your services, and you didn't show up on time.
Correct.
Is this the post you wanted the Defendant to remove?
Yes. Why couldn't Melissa just put on her own page, on her own wall,
instead of going to the Word of Mouth page where there's 65,000 people to see,
that I'm running a little bit late?
-Ms. Borock. -Yes, ma'am.
[Acker] What's your role at this Facebook page?
Um, I'm a moderator, so I sometimes help approve posts,
um, approve members.
I make sure that people aren't spamming, being rude to anybody else.
Did you approve this post?
I did not personally approve that post, no.
What does the group do?
So, Sarasota, Word of Mouth is kind of what its namesake is,
it's word of mouth. So, you can give referrals for good businesses.
So, if you wanted to post, looking for a great hair and makeup artist,
um, we don't...
[Acker] It's a review service. So, potential consumers
can see what other clients thought about the services being offered.
Yes, ma'am.
[Acker] What sort of rules are in place to make sure
that somebody doesn't just post something that's a slur or untrue?
So, we try to vet everybody.
We only allow negative reviews to the wall itself
because it's too hard to go through everybody's page originally,
and be like, okay, well, this is the boyfriend of this person,
so they're just posting a good review for them.
There's a lot of fake good reviews.
With negative reviews, we try to look everything over,
make sure that there's evidence.
Melissa had screenshots in her post of Eddie not responding.
In fact, can we put up Exhibit 12?
Melissa's support for the bad experience that she had with the Plaintiff.
And Mr. Ward, you admit you didn't show up on time.
-You were pretty honest about it. -[Eddie] Yes.
It was scheduled for 7:30, I was gonna be there around 8:00.
So, why does the Defendant have an obligation to remove a post
that you yourself admit was true?
Okay. Well, that post that continued on was a bunch of...
People were saying I'm a drunk driver. I'm an alcoholic.
And then it just spun out of control of a bunch of fake stuff.
I asked her to take the post off the wall. Just take it down.
-That's it. Just take it down. -[Acker] Hold on.
Let's put up Exhibit One, a comment to the original post
that suggests that you were driving drunk,
and driving customers while you were intoxicated.
Complete 100 made-up stuff.
How can you prove it's made-up? It's your burden.
I don't even know who these people are. I looked up their profiles
and there's like two pictures, that's it. No history, no stories.
So, those are fake posts.
Those are fake profiles making up fake posts.
Now, let me ask Ms. Borock, were you aware of this comment?
Yes.
But did this person who made this post
provide any evidence of the fact that he was actually drunk?
Because this is a pretty serious charge.
I'm not sure. There was hundreds of comments
and everything was happening very fast.
I also have three kids, a business, a job, so I'm not on this 24/7.
That's why there's so many...
-So, you may have missed it. -Yes, ma'am.
[Acker] But you did tell him to do what?
I told him that if he would apologize to her,
or if he wanted to tag me in any derogatory comments,
I would remove those for him.
Did you tag her? Because I didn't see evidence that she was tagged.
-I just saw... -I was not allowed to post.
I was not allowed to respond to any of the posts.
She blocked me from responding to any of the posts.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
You're lying to me.
I'm not lying.
Now, that makes everything you say to me suspect.
[main theme playing]
[narrator] Limo driver Eddie Ward says a scathing online review
threatened to destroy his business,
so he's suing the website's moderator, Rachel Borock for $5,000 in lost wages.
Rachel says Eddie made no attempt to remedy the situation he created.
So, she owes nothing.
I want to talk about your claim for damages, Mr. Ward,
because you submitted evidence that you lost business.
That someone was going to book with you
and that they subsequently did not make the booking.
It's Exhibit Two.
It's a Facebook message, isn't it?
A private message, yes.
[Acker] And it says that the message originated from Ohio.
And you are in Florida.
How do I know you didn't do this?
Florida's a transient state. Visitors come down every week.
Visitors from Ohio could be in Florida tomorrow.
How do I know what that person was gonna pay for your services?
-Maybe they were gonna book you for $20. -I don't know, ma'am.
[Acker] The fact that you don't know
makes it hard for me to rely on this evidence.
Do you have any other evidence of losses?
It's hard to prove evidence when it's phone calls and other texts.
I didn't realize I was gonna be here...
I'm glad you mentioned phone calls
because you were doing a lot of engaging with the folks on this platform.
-I guess private message and... -Just take the post down.
It's causing me a lot of damage and havoc.
And then, you submitted evidence of what you say is harassment
by the Defendant's boyfriend. Can we put up Exhibit Nine, please?
So, this is a bunch of really nasty... [laughs]
-words being exchanged... -He wants to do gay things to me.
[Acker] ...between you and someone else.
That's you, sir, the blue bubble.
-[Eddie] Yeah, that's my side. -That's you.
By the way, you give as good as you get.
But how do I know that they're from her boyfriend?
They're from other administrators of that page.
How do I know that?
-You have to prove it. -[Eddie] Yeah.
[Acker] Ms. Borock, how many moderators are there on the site?
I believe five or six.
[Acker] There are five or six moderators...
She claimed she's a moderator that's in charge.
And she's the one telling me to apologize and then she'll take the post down.
Who do I apologize to and what am I apologizing for?
Okay, I need you to stop.
I need you to stop.
Now, I need to understand why you are suing this particular Defendant.
Okay. She's the one that said she's the moderator of the page.
That's why there's lots of communication between her and I.
Me asking her just take the post down. That's all that I'm asking.
She's even laughing at me saying, I'll take it down when you apologize.
I'm like, who am I apologizing to and for what for?
The job I was running late for was picked up by another driver
within 30 minutes, which means, okay, the job is being covered.
-I'm done, I can go on. -[Acker] But not your driver.
-It wasn't a driver that you dispatched. -Yeah.
You knew why she wanted you to apologize. Put aside whether or not you needed to...
I didn't know what I'm apologizing for.
For not showing up when you were paid to do a job.
I wasn't paid.
[Acker] To come here and play dumb.
You don't show up when somebody books you for a job
and you don't know why you should apologize.
-Maybe that's why you got the bad review -[indistinct]
'cause you don't understand customer service.
-[Eddie] The job was covered. -Judge DiMango?
You know, Jerry Seinfeld had a skit
where he goes to pick up a car that he had reserved.
And they say, we don't have the car.
And he says, you know how to make the reservation,
you just don't know how to keep the reservation.
And that's kinda what happened here. You made a reservation
with this young lady for her bachelorette party.
And then, when the time came, you didn't show.
-Now, I think the mix-up here is... -Running late.
...the apology, and you correct me if I'm wrong,
the apology that you wanted him to make was at the time of the call.
When she reached out to you and she said, hey, where are you?
That's the point in time that the apology was being suggested.
Would I be correct about that?
Partially. But also, I just think, today's day and age with social media,
I think everyone would've been on his side if he'd just taken accountability.
Right. Maybe if you'd been accountable at that moment in time,
you wouldn't have even had the post.
When you said to him, if you would tag me on the wall or whatever,
what is that? Tell me.
I meant if he would tag me in the comments.
So, if there was a negative comment, like, somebody on there
was actually threatening Melissa about, you can't talk bad about Eddie.
We'll bash you over with a beer bottle.
So, a comment like that, I got tagged in.
I removed that person, I removed that comment.
Why can't there be another way for you to remove it?
Why couldn't it be the fact that he reached out to you and said,
this post is causing me problems? Not this post so much,
but the one that was allegedly responded to by the other person.
He did not send me the other post or anything like that.
I said, if there's any comments...
You never saw the other post?
I did see that one later on when I started to review after everything,
but originally, this was the only post and there was over 500 comments.
[DiMango] Sir, you've been in business a long time.
Yes.
[DiMango] You make some enemies along the way.
-No. -[DiMango] You have good business
and some bad business.
And if you do something wrong and you make someone angry,
they are going to post something.
Her job as the moderator is to make sure that that post
was not false, was not slanderous.
And indeed, it was true. Correct?
-No. -[DiMango stammers]
Are you gonna tell me that this is not true?
You didn't go late?
-May I answer? -No, I want an answer
to that question because once you start to lie...
I was gonna be there at 8:00 instead of 7:30.
No, I read the post. It said you confirmed with her.
This is the worst thing you could've done for yourself right now.
7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, it could've been anytime.
Then why didn't you get to her house at 6:00 and wait till they came out?
Because I was in Miami with a group for three days.
-I was on my way... -Now you have a new thing,
-group for three days. -A family.
First, you're with a client, now with a group for three days.
Yeah, comin' back.
-You're lying to me. -I'm not lying.
And now, that makes everything you say to me suspect.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
Another driver that used to work for me picked 'em up.
[Levy] You think that's right?
My child says that that was right, I'd take away their Game Boy.
Do they even have Game Boys anymore?
[all laugh]
[main theme playing]
[narrator] Limo driver Eddie Ward says he was the victim
of an online hit job when website moderator Rachel Borock
allowed a poor review to be posted.
He's suing her for $5,000.
But Rachel says the review was true
and Eddie is just having a major meltdown.
You're lying to me. And now, that makes everything you say to me suspect.
I'm not lying about anything. I was running a little late.
-Come on. -[Eddie] Another driver showed up.
[DiMango] You were still late. That's not the point.
I didn't even show up.
The other driver did the job within half an hour.
-[DiMango] Okay, thank you for that. -I was coming back from Miami.
-Judge Levy? -[Levy] Mr. Ward,
I think I understand your position pretty well
-that you were just running late. -Yes, sir.
What time were you supposed to be there?
I thought it was 7:30, but I was gonna be there around 8:00.
At that time, at 8:00, you actually have other people with you,
according to what you told Judge Acker.
Droppin' them off and I'm about five minutes away.
Okay. Can you please show me the text that you sent to Melissa
in which you said, I'm five minutes away, I'll be right there.
'Cause that's gonna be really important. 'Cause I can tell ya, if it's not there...
-[Eddie] It's here. -Good, let me see.
I do a lot of charity work for the hospital administrators.
So, to damage my reputation...
No, no, no. Focus.
May I ask? Why do I have to apologize to her about...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Asking a question that's been on my mind.
[Levy] Just find me your text
where you apologized for running late.
I did delete a lot of stuff from being upset...
No, you wouldn't. You would not have deleted the only evidence
that would've proved you were correct,
that would have established a basis for the Defendant to take down the post
when she was saying to you over and over and over again,
why don't you just apologize? You would've said, I did apologize.
I told her, I'm sorry for being late, I'm gonna be right there.
You never did that.
They got another ride within ten minutes.
-Why do I have to... -[Levy] So, because...
So, if I'm talking to my child,
and we're having this conversation right now,
what I would say to my child is,
so, let me understand you correctly. Because you screwed up,
someone else's life was made more difficult.
And you just chose not to apologize because they figured out another way
to get what they needed. You think that's right?
Another driver that used to work for me picked 'em up.
You think that's right? My child says that that was right,
I'd take away their Game Boy.
Do they even have Game Boys anymore?
[all chuckle]
I got older kids. Okay.
You were asked by Judge Acker, why didn't you apologize?
I didn't know where I was stayin' that night 'cause my house was blown away.
[Levy] I got it. I got it.
So, let me ask you a question.
When the Defendant suggested to you
that you simply respond to Melissa's text. Correct?
Yes, sir.
And explain that you apologize for being late.
You apologize for it slipping your mind. And the reason is
because we as a community know that we just had this hurricane
and there's a lot goin' on. You received that.
Yeah. And I did respond.
-[Levy] Hold on. -They denied my post.
-The wouldn't let me respond... -[Levy] Is that correct?
No, sir.
[Levy] I see absolutely no evidence to suggest that's correct.
Because there are other texts that you sent.
There were other Facebook posts after that initial incident
when the appointment with Melissa
-slipped your mind. -Yes.
You said, what am I apologizing for and who am I apologizing to?
-Yeah. -[Levy] So, that would be Melissa.
-I said that. -That'd be for slipping your mind.
And you chose not to do that. And that's your choice.
And I would've, but they had another driver picked up right away.
Yeah, I got it. We're back to my kid's story.
Let me ask you this.
You go with your mother to a doctor's appointment with her.
No, I don't do that.
[Levy] Pretend you're a good son and you did.
All right. [laughs]
So, you drive her to a doctor's appointment that she scheduled
and it took her a month to get. And when you two show up,
the person in the doctor's office says, you know what,
this appointment slipped my mind.
In Sarasota, every doctor's running late by hours,
because I take people to doctor's offices.
All right. So, two wrongs... I get it.
Another driver picked up the job.
I don't understand why this is such a dramatic event.
And then, people started making stuff up. That's the part I'm upset about.
Okay, I agree, I'm runnin' late. The post is fine.
But the follow up stuff.
Yeah, that's okay.
-[Eddie] No, it's not. -Yeah...
I'm not an alcoholic. I don't drink ever. You'll never see me in a bar.
-You'll never see me with a drink. -[Levy] Mr. Ward.
But I'm losing business because somebody's post says I'm a drinker.
Listen to me. There's no one in this courtroom
that knows more about defamation cases than I do.
I've brought them, I've defended them.
-It hurts. -[Levy] Mm-hmm.
It sure does. But the ones that I brought were legitimate.
The posts that people said about me that attacked my credibility,
my reputation that I worked so hard for like you claim you did yours,
they were false postings.
People like you who do something like you did to Melissa
don't apologize, and then, you acknowledge
the truth of those statements. And you want to silence them
simply because of the effect that your own misconduct has on you?
You know what? There's no place in the law to help you for that.
None whatsoever. I have nothing further. Thank you.
[Acker] When was the post taken down?
Melissa posted this on October 21st.
It was removed on the 23rd
because Eddie was calling and harassing the company
that the owner of the group also owns.
So, the post was up for two days.
Just to be clear, it's my understanding that all of the comments are also removed.
So, the comment about him allegedly having been wasted was removed.
Yes, ma'am.
I don't see any losses, but I also don't have anything further.
I have a couple of things that I was going to ask you,
and hesitated to, but you raised it.
When somebody says to me, I never, ever, ever, ever drink,
I always know that there's probably been a drinking issue.
How long ago did you stop drinking?
I've never had an issue with alcohol.
I've never been in trouble with alcohol. I stopped drinking in my early 20s.
I'm a limo driver. I'm a chauffeur.
I'm sorry, I do have something. On October 11th,
Eddie posted, in Siesta Key, hurricane kitchen prep.
And it includes a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Yeah.
Alcohol goes a long way when you're in a hurricane zone with other stranded people.
It's like currency.
Thank you for that. I think that we're okay.
We're gonna retire to deliberate at this time.
I hand out shots during hurricane parties.
Thank you so much. We're gonna retire to deliberate.
Court now stands in recess. This case will be recalled.
Parties are excused.
I barely know where to start because there are so many reasons
why his case fails. First, she's not the owner of the site.
So, if he has a grievance, arguably he should have sued the owner.
Secondly, platforms like this
are generally not liable for third-party content.
Unless they are somehow pushing the content.
So, for instance, you know, there was a case involving TikTok,
where TikTok was found liable
because they were actually suggesting content to viewers.
Where the platform is simply receiving information
from third-parties, there's no liability. We wouldn't have an Internet
if we imposed liability under those circumstances.
Thirdly, the content, at least the main post,
was true by his own admission.
I know he may think it's not a big deal to show up late
when you're picking people up.
I like how he was like, they were just girls going to a bar.
I'm like, girls going to a bar need a driver. That's the point.
The comment was ultimately taken down. He's shown me no evidence of damages.
So, I think that his case fails every which way.
I think it fails on so many levels as well.
And primarily, I didn't find him credible.
He was just throwing things out there to kind of embellish his story.
And the Internet is what it is. And I said it; we all said it;
he should've apologized at the outset.
No good deed goes unpunished. Why her?
It was because she was the only one in that group
that decided to take the time to try to help him.
And I think as all of us now know, he's not helpable.
-No, he's not. -He's beyond help.
And he viewed that almost like a vendetta that she had against him.
I mean, he took that to such an extreme.
I'm glad you reminded us of that point, because if she had just ignored him...
Like everybody else.
Like everybody else did, she wouldn't be a Defendant in a lawsuit.
-I agree with you both. -I think we're unanimous.
-Yes. -Okay, we are.
[dramatic music playing]
Court is back in session. I remind parties you're still under oath.
-Thank you, Byrd. -Mm-hmm.
We've deliberated and we quickly reached a unanimous verdict.
Mr. Ward, there are so many problems with your lawsuit.
First, we were a little baffled as to why you're choosing
to sue this Defendant instead of the platform writ large.
She doesn't own it.
And even assuming she did have some individual or personal liability,
platforms such as this are generally not liable for third-party content,
because people who own platforms want to provide a space
where people can comment about services.
If your theory of liability were to prevail,
there would be no Yelp. There'd be no reviews of any kind.
Thirdly, at least part of that content was demonstrably true.
Regardless of whether or not you think it's not a big deal to pick up girls
when they want a driver to take 'em to a bar.
People who are hiring you for those services find it quite a big deal.
So, Melissa's content was true.
The content regarding your being drunk,
we have no way of proving it or disproving it. It's irrelevant.
And again, even if it's false, not her problem, not her liability.
And finally, sir, you provided absolutely no evidence of damages.
The post was only up a couple of days.
If it was up longer, five days as you say, there's still no evidence of damages.
And Ms. Borock, Judge Levy reminded us of a really important point.
And that is, the only reason you're here is
because you were nice enough to engage with him.
Had you just ignored him, like your colleagues did,
you wouldn't even be here.
You would just be another anonymous moderator,
and he could've had his tantrum online.
The only mistake you made was not bringing a countersuit.
Because this lawsuit strikes me as vindictive and harassing,
and I'm sorry that you had to deal with it.
-Yeah. -Your case is dismissed, sir.
-Good luck to you. -[gavel bangs]
Court is now concluded. Parties are excused. You may step out.
I do a thousand jobs perfect, and then one, I'm 20 minutes late.
I'm just glad that they know the truth.
-She laughed at me. -No, sir.
I felt really bad for the guy
and I just wanted to try to help him if I could.
Why is some girl I don't even know telling me I have to apologize to people?
He harassed me over and over. We didn't really touch on that.
Have you ever complained about your Uber driver being late before?
You just get another one.
[narrator] Are you being sued?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
Find us on social media at TribunalJustice.
[theme music playing]