{"id":21032,"date":"2014-06-26T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/"},"modified":"2014-06-26T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T04:00:00","slug":"judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 26, 2014<\/p>\n

Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Statement of Scott Michelman, Attorney, Public Citizen<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Judge Dee Benson of U.S. District Court in Utah awarded Public Citizen clients John and Jen Palmer $306,750 ($102,250 in compensatory damages and $204,500 in punitive damages) against the online retailer KlearGear.com. The company had demanded $3,500 from the Palmers for writing a critical online review of the company, then ruined John\u2019s credit when he refused to pay.<\/p>\n

As a result of KlearGear.com\u2019s actions, the Palmers lost credit opportunities; suffered anxiety, fear and humiliation; and spent weeks without heat in their home for themselves and their 3-year-old son when their furnace broke and they were unable to obtain a loan to replace it.<\/p>\n

Public Citizen sued KlearGear.com on the Palmers\u2019 behalf<\/a> in December. When KlearGear.com failed to respond, the court granted a default judgment\u00a0<\/a>declaring that John did not owe the $3,500 and setting a hearing, held Wednesday, to determine damages. After an hour-long hearing at which both plaintiffs testified, the judge announced the award from the bench.<\/p>\n

We are gratified by Judge Benson\u2019s ruling, which appropriately compensates the Palmers for their ordeal and punishes KlearGear.com for its abuse of the credit reporting system in retaliation for the Palmers\u2019 speech. The court sent a strong message that corporate bullying of consumers would not be tolerated. The Palmers are relieved that John\u2019s credit has been restored and they feel vindicated by today\u2019s award.<\/p>\n

More information about the case is available here<\/a>.
###<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-21032","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_news-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJudge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Statement of Scott Michelman, Attorney, Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/publiccitizen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/public_citizen_shared_link.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Public_Citizen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/\",\"name\":\"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-26T04:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/\",\"name\":\"Public Citizen\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen","og_description":"Statement of Scott Michelman, Attorney, Public Citizen","og_url":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/","og_site_name":"Public Citizen","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/publiccitizen\/","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/public_citizen_shared_link.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Public_Citizen","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/","url":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/","name":"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review - Public Citizen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-26T04:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/judge-awards-utah-couple-306750-in-case-against-retailer-that-tried-to-impose-fine-for-critical-online-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Judge Awards Utah Couple $306,750 in Case Against Retailer That Tried to Impose Fine for Critical Online Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/","name":"Public Citizen","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}