Palm Beach County Internet Defamation Lawyer

Yes. Our office is located in Delray Beach, which is in Palm Beach County. We serve clients throughout Palm Beach County, including West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Lake Worth, Wellington, Pahokee, and all other cities in the county. We practice in Palm Beach County Circuit Court regularly and are familiar with the judges, court procedures, and local legal landscape. Whether you are in the south county (Boca Raton, Delray) or north county (Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens), we are your local defamation firm.

Palm Beach County Circuit Court is located at 205 N Dixie Highway in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida. This is the primary courthouse where internet defamation, business litigation, and civil cases in Palm Beach County are filed. Ludwin Law Group practices in this courthouse regularly and has extensive experience with its judges, procedures, and local rules. We also handle cases in federal court at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (SDFL).

We serve all cities throughout Palm Beach County, including: West Palm Beach (the county seat and location of Circuit Court), Boca Raton, Delray Beach (where our office is located), Boynton Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Lake Worth, Wellington, Pahokee, and all other municipalities in the county. Palm Beach County is the largest county in Florida by area and includes both wealthy coastal communities and growing inland cities. No matter where you are in Palm Beach County, you have a local defamation attorney with Ludwin Law Group.

Under Florida law, internet defamation (online libel) requires four elements: (1) a false statement of fact, not opinion; (2) publication to at least one third party; (3) fault by the person who published it (negligence for private figures, actual malice for public figures); and (4) damages. Florida also recognizes defamation per se, where damages are presumed for certain categories of false statements, including a publication that charges an infamous crime, charges an infectious disease, tends to subject someone to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt, or disgrace, or tends to injure someone in their trade or profession. Richard v. Gray, 62 So. 2d 597 (Fla. 1953). The statute of limitations is two years from the date of first publication under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(h).

Immediately. Florida’s two-year statute of limitations begins on the date the content was first published, not the date you discovered it. For anonymous attacks, the situation is even more urgent: no law requires social media platforms, ISPs, or web hosts to retain log data at all, and each one purges on its own schedule. Once those logs are gone, identifying an anonymous poster becomes extremely difficult or impossible. Contact an attorney within days of discovering the content, not weeks.

Yes, if the review contains a false statement of fact (not just negative opinion), you may have a viable defamation claim. Reviews like “this business scammed me” or “the owner committed fraud” are statements of fact that can be proven true or false. Reviews like “I had a terrible experience” are generally protected opinion. Google is not legally liable for user-posted content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, but the individual who posted the review can be sued for defamation in Florida. Defamation lawsuits in Palm Beach County are filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in West Palm Beach. We can help you identify anonymous reviewers through subpoena if necessary and pursue the appropriate legal action.

We file what is called a John Doe lawsuit naming the anonymous poster as an unnamed defendant, then issue subpoenas to the platform, ISP, or web host to obtain account registration information, IP addresses, and access logs. Because no Florida appellate court has set a standard for these subpoenas, the showing a trial judge expects can vary from case to case. The process typically takes several weeks from filing to receiving a response. Once we have identifying information, we can name the actual defendant and proceed with the lawsuit. The most critical factor is timing. Log data disappears fast, and we need to act before it does.

Florida courts distinguish between statements of fact (which can be proven true or false) and pure opinion (which cannot). Only false statements of fact are actionable as defamation. Courts look at whether the statement implies a verifiable fact, the context in which it was made, and whether a reasonable person would interpret it as fact or opinion. For example: “This contractor did poor work” is likely opinion. “This contractor stole from my home” is a verifiable factual claim. Mixed statements, opinion that implies underlying false facts, can also be actionable. A defamation attorney can evaluate the specific language in your situation.

Not directly through Google, in most cases. Google will remove content from search results in limited circumstances (child sexual abuse material, certain personal information, court-ordered removals) but generally does not remove links to third-party content based solely on a defamation claim. The more effective strategy is to get the content removed from the source website, the platform, forum, or hosting provider, at which point Google’s index will eventually update. Court orders and platform legal requests are more reliable tools than Google’s standard removal process. Once source content is down, Google cache clears on its next crawl.

Florida law allows recovery for both economic and non-economic damages in defamation cases. Economic damages include lost business income, lost clients, damage to professional reputation, and costs incurred to address the defamation. Non-economic damages include harm to personal reputation, mental anguish, and emotional distress. In cases of defamation per se, damages may be presumed without specific proof of financial loss. In cases involving deliberate malice or reckless disregard for the truth, punitive damages may also be available. The value of any specific case depends on the facts, the reach of the content, and the provable harm.

Usually not, if the person you are suing is a private individual. Section 770.01, Florida Statutes, requires that before a civil action is brought for publication or broadcast, in a newspaper, periodical, or other medium, of a libel or slander, the plaintiff serve written notice on the defendant at least 5 days before instituting the action, specifying the statements alleged to be false and defamatory.

Florida courts read that requirement as protecting media defendants only. The Fourth District, which covers Palm Beach County, stated it plainly: “Every Florida court that has considered the question has concluded that the presuit notice requirement applies only to ‘media defendants,’ not private individuals.” Zelinka v. Americare Healthscan, Inc., 763 So. 2d 1173 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000). Someone posting on another party’s website or review platform is not a media defendant.

The line turns on what the publisher does, not on the platform. The Fifth District held the requirement reaches a medium “the purpose of which is the free dissemination of news or analytical comment on matters of public concern,” and applied it to a genuine commentary blog. Comins v. VanVoorhis, 135 So. 3d 545 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014). The Second District reached the opposite result for a video blog and website posts used to accuse a former employee of embezzlement, holding that “the ‘other medium’ language is not meant to expand the scope of section 770.01 beyond the news media.” McQueen v. Baskin, 377 So. 3d 170 (Fla. 2d DCA 2023).

So the answer depends on what the defendant actually is. Send notice you did not owe and you lose days you did not need to lose. Skip notice you did owe and the complaint can be dismissed. We make that call before anything is filed.

In some circumstances, yes. Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute, section 768.295, covers statements made before a governmental entity in connection with an issue under consideration, and statements made in or in connection with a play, movie, television program, radio broadcast, audiovisual work, book, magazine article, musical work, news report, or other similar work.

Subsection (4) provides that the court shall award the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in connection with a claim that an action was filed in violation of the section. That award is not discretionary once the finding is made. Whether the statement you want to sue over falls inside those protected categories is something to determine before filing, which is why we assess exposure at the outset.