Criticize The Contractor? An Arbitration Award For Defamation

Hell hath no fury like a homeowner scorned, particularly one with access to sophisticated IT professionals who will establish and optimize a website solely to criticize the contractor. But the cabinetry contractor – whose arbitration award including attorneys' fees was just affirmed by a Connecticut appellate court – is having the last laugh. The arbitrator awarded damages and attorneys' fees for the homeowners' defamatory actions. And the appellate court confirmed that the arbitrator did not engage in "manifest disregard" for the law when he found the homeowners to have acted maliciously in conducting their war of words.

In an age of web-based commentary and criticism that forms the basis of sites such as Yelp, the homeowners' actions here went well beyond the norm. The husband used his company's IT professionals to establish a website and take steps to ensure that anyone searching for the cabinetry business would find his site, with all its critical comments,