In a decision on Thursday,Victorian Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards said Google became liable as a publisher of both a"snippet"of the article in search results and the full article,headlined"Underworld loses valued friend at court",from February 11,2016.
This marked a"reasonable time"after Mr Defteros'law firm asked Google on February 4 to remove the article from search results. Mr Defteros'lawyers appeared to accept Google could rely on the defence of innocent dissemination before that date,she said.
Justice Richards said the the search result and article defamed Mr Defteros by suggesting he"crossed the line from professional lawyer for,to confidant and friend of,criminal elements"and"critically"neither the search result nor the article"gave any indication that the charges against Mr Defteros were later withdrawn".
She said that in 2016 Mr Defteros"had a settled reputation as an ethical lawyer".
The court heard a solicitor working at Mr Defteros'firm told Google in early 2016 that he had suedThe Age over the article and the publisher had agreed as part of a settlement to remove the article.
This was"not accurate",Justice Richards said,andThe Age had neither been sued nor agreed to remove the article at the time,although it subsequently removed the story in December 2016.
The removal request nevertheless put Google on notice the article appeared in its search results and Mr Defteros claimed it defamed him,she said.