Doctor says battle with Google left her ‘nothing’

A FORMER SA Health researcher says the cost of her seven-year-long legal battle with tech giant Google has left her with nothing.

An emotional Dr Janice Duffy took to the witness box in the South Australian Supreme Court yesterday, in a case that first came before the courts in 2011.

Dr Duffy successfully sued Google for defamation in 2015 after its search algorithm connected her name to harmful accusations made against her by the members of a website.

Google immediately launched an appeal, which was in 2017 dismissed by the Full Court of the Supreme Court.

Dr Duffy, who has represented herself for much of the proceedings, said the case had left her “very, very financially strapped”.

“In fact, I ran out of money completely in April 2015, and had to go to Centrelink,” she told the court during a related interlocutory hearing involving the removal of certain material from the internet.

“I had nothing left. Even my superannuation (was gone).”

Michelle de Veau, also called to give evidence on Tuesday, said she googled Dr Duffy’s name after she applied to foster a dog, and was “astonished” when she came across the defamatory content.

“I couldn’t believe what I was reading,” she told the court. I started to wonder exactly what sort of person (she) actually (was) because it didn’t gel with the person who I had been chatting with for a few months.”