Online review costs $7k
Lawyer sues former real estate agent for defamatory posts
A GOOGLE review has cost a former Gold Coast real estate agent about $7500 after his incendiary comments about a Mermaid Waters lawyer were ruled defamatory.
Former real estate agent Alexander Dariush-far left the review in September 2020 and wrongly accused Nicholas Radich of being a “crook” and said that he made criminals “look like angels”.
Judge Rowan Jackson, after a two-day trial in the Southport District Court, on Tuesday ruled the review had been defamatory. He ordered Mr Dariush-far pay $7500 in damages for the comments. Mr DariushFar was also ordered to pay Mr Radich’s legal costs.
The court was told the review read in full: “Critical: Professionalism Watch every step this guy is so crook he puts the criminal (sic) locked up in jail to look like angels.”
The review was left after Mr Radich appeared in court for a client who had taken legal action against Mr Dariush-far’s wife Yulia Khromeenkova.
During a discussion between Mr Radich and Mr Dariush-far an argument broke out, the court was told.
Mr Radich claimed the review “greatly injured his reputation” and that he had suffered “great distress”.
He originally asked for $20,000 in damages.
His lawyer Geoff Provest, of Provest Law, told the Bulletin on Wednesday the result was “an excellent outcome”.
“It was not about the money, as principally he was seeking vindication for the defamatory Google Review which was published about him,” he said.
“It is also a lesson for others not to post offensive or defamatory Google Reviews of a person or a business, as it can be very costly for that person.”
Mr Dariush-far is a former real estate agent who worked from Sovereign Realty in Runaway Bay.
It was not the first time a Google review has hit the courts in Southport.
Gold Coast criminal lawyer Chris Nyst in 2020 took a former client and Google to court over a one-star review left about his firm.
Mr Nyst discontinued the court case in a secret settlement last year.