Google lawyers tell SA Supreme Court it has not encouraged harassment of witnesses in Dr Janice Duffy’s new defamation claim

Google says it’s not harassing witnesses in a new claim from the Adelaide doctor it defamed – and has accused her of acting on “supposition and assumption”.

Dr Janice Duffy, left, and Peter Campbell, counsel for Google, outside court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt.

Google has denied encouraging the harassment of witnesses in an upcoming trial – and accused a doctor it previously defamed of “extraordinary supposition and assumption”.

On Thursday, the global tech giant said there was no need for the Supreme Court to intervene in its ongoing dispute with Dr Janice Duffy.

Peter Campbell, for Google, said there was “simply no evidence” his client needed to be “restrained from intimidating” witnesses supportive of Dr Duffy’s case.

“That’s just simply factually incorrect … there’s no basis whatsoever that would support a (court) order like that,” he said.

“It’s predicated on assumptions that are not correct (and) on an extraordinary number of suppositions and misconceptions.”

Dr Duffy, however, told the court that Google had repeatedly demanded she identify the witnesses – and she would continue to refuse to do so without the order.

“Until this application is heard, I cannot provide any information about my witnesses – I just will not do it,” she said.

“I’m not going to give Google any information until this is sorted out.”

Dr Duffy made legal history in 2015 when she won a defamation judgment against Google. Picture: Matt Turner.

In 2015, the Supreme Court found Google had defamed Dr Duffy due to the way its patented algorithm auto-completed search terms, and ordered it pay $115,000 in damages.

Less than a year later, Dr Duffy filed a second lawsuit because, she asserted, the company had still not removed the links even after the ruling.

On Wednesday, The Advertiser revealed she had further asserted Google “enabled and encouraged” the harassment of witnesses in an attempt to “destroy” them ahead of trial.

On Thursday, Mr Campbell complained to the court about The Advertiser’s exclusive report.

“This matter was being reported in the press before we even came to court today,” he said.

“There was a front-page article about this very application, including completely inappropriate details from an affidavit.”

He asked the court order the parties immediately disclose their evidence to one another, and that each side nominate any materials it “objected” to releasing.

Dr Duffy said she was “prepared to do that”, provided her application was heard and argued at the next court appearance.

She said her witnesses needed the court’s protection.

“One is a former senior Google engineer who will be giving evidence on Google's removal process,” she said.

Judge Graham Dart made the proposed order and adjourned the matter to a hearing in February, when Dr Duffy’s application will be argued.