So yesterday I was served with papers from Everlast Construction. They are counter-suing me for the remaining balance on the contract as well as claiming defamation and false light. They are also trying to transfer my small claims case to civil court since they are saying their suit and my suit are basically the same.
Defamation is basically them saying I’ve made false statements about their business and as a result have harmed their business. I’ve never once knowingly made a false statement. I have made mistakes and I’ve corrected those mistakes when they were pointed out. So I have not defamed them.
And false light is very similar to defamation except it’s more geared towards personal embarrassment then harming a business. Although with defamation, once I prove what I’ve said is true, that defends against defamation. With false light, if the implication is false, I would be guilty. However, nothing I’ve said that I know of is false. Or at least this is my understanding of what it is – i’m not a lawyer so I could be wrong.
I believe this is just more intimidation tactics on their part. I think that they are not only trying to scare me, again, into shutting up. But they are also trying to make it more difficult and expensive to take them to court since a civil case is more complex, and can be more expensive since you typically go to civil cases with a lawyer.
I have no intention of backing down. I want to take these guys to court so there is a public record of their lies and shoddy work. The only other public record is with the cslb and even that is basically a footnote at this point without much details. Plus I think Everlast Construction is appealing that citation, so it’s not official yet.
We are taking Everlast to arbitration. The evidence in our favor is overwhelming. It is very clear by their posture that they attempt to intimidate all customers, because their model is to cheat basically everyone, hope most will be too busy or inexperienced to sue them, and then offer a little money to the people with litigation experience to make them go away.
To be clear, Ari the “CEO” specifically offered me money in exchange for removing my extremely honest reviews. Obviously, I would not sleep well at night if I accepted that deal.
cannot agree more on what you experienced.