Melbourne man wins $200000 in Google case - The Australian Financial Review

Michael Trkulja has been awarded $200,000 after successfully suing Google.

Patrick Durkin

Former music promoter Milorad “Michael” Trkulja has successfully sued US search engine Google for $200,000 after it linked him to the Melbourne underworld following an unsolved restaurant shooting in 2004.

The first page of searches after Mr Trkulja was shot in the back while dining at a St Albans restaurant in 2004 brought up 185,000 results and photographs under the heading “Melbourne Crime” including pictures of Melbourne identity Tony Mokbel.

The jury found that an ordinary internet surfer observing images between October and December 2009 would conclude that Mr Trkulja was so involved with crime in Melbourne that his rivals had hired a hit man to murder him.

“The plaintiff [Mr Trkulja] gave evidence that he is a show business manager, having engaged in that occupation for some 40 years,” judge David Beach said in a decision with implications for internet search engine handed down on Monday.

Mr Trkulja gave evidence that “my life is my reputation, and you know, if a person loses his reputation, he has nothing”.

Having come to Australia in the late 1960s from the former Yugoslavia, Mr Trkulja was an elder in the Serbian Orthodox Church in Springvale. At one stage in the 1990s he had his own television show on Channel 31 which Mr Trkulja said was the second highest rating show on Channel 31 for twelve months.

Justice Beach ultimately awarded less than the $225,000 Mr Trkulja received in respect of the same incident from search engine Yahoo! earlier this year.

“In the end, because I think this case is more about vindication and ‘nailing the lie’ ... in my view, the appropriate amount of damages in this case is $200,000,” the judge said.

The Australian Financial Review