Category: business disputes

Arbitration: How Do You Choose The Arbitrator?

Posted on by g83js92js91
Categories: arbitration, attorney, business contracts, business disputes, Business Law & Contracts, Business Law Disputes, contract law, contracts, Jason A McGrath, lawsuit, Litigation, small business
Attorney Jason McGrathexplains some things to consider when choosing the arbitrator during a lawsuit in this short video.

Here are some of the key points contained in the video:

  • If using a panel of 3 arbitrators: each party picks an arbitrator and then those two arbitrators pick the third one.
  • If using only 1 arbitrator: one side presents a list of possible arbitrators to the other side and the other side picks from the list.
  • You go back and forth and negotiate between the parties until a decision is made.
  • You may wish to avoid attempting private conversations with potential arbitrators in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
  • Consider all the information available to you to make an informed decision about your arbitrator.
  • Arbitrators may also be appointed by the court.

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(Part 4) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on by g83js92js91
Categories: business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media
(Click for Part 1)   (Click for Part 2)   (Click for Part 3)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

rating, review, feedback, custom service, service score, business

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the fourth.

(4) Publicly responding to the negative online review. Some business owners will post a response if the hosting website allows the same/has a mechanism in place. Again, you would want to be very careful in taking this approach, would want to take numerous deep breaths before writing the response, and would want to have at least one other rational person review your response before submitting. There is a definite split of opinions as to how to execute this approach, and of course each situation can be different. If you are going to respond:

  1. should the response be general or detailed?
  2. should the response be apologetic or more of a rebuttal or defense?
  3. should the response contain the name, or at least the position, of the person writing it on behalf of the business?
  4. should the response invite the complainer to call the business to further discuss?

In my personal experience, most of the responses I see written by business owners are fairly neutral and contain sort of a non-apology apology – you know, the kind that athletes’ public relations representatives write for them, something like “I am sorry if anyone was offended by . . . .”

The bottom line is that if you are going to respond, be very careful. Some of the folks out there, referred to as “trolls” in today’s internet world, will gleefully jump on any response, no matter how well-intentioned, just to up the ante and further stir the pot. Good luck.

(Click for Part 1)   (Click for Part 2)   (Click for Part 3)

(Part 3) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on by g83js92js91
Categories: business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, online reviews, Social Media
(Click here for Part 1)     (Click here for Part 2)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the third.

(3) Communicating with the company or website which hosts or published the troublesome review. This can be productive and worthwhile and is unlikely to have negative consequences. In our experience most review sites do make an effort to act professionally, but understandably it is impossible to manage the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands reviews that the website may ultimately contain. If you – or your representative/attorney try hard enough, you can likely get someone’s attention and perhaps even instigate an investigation of the review.

Some reviews violate the posting company’s terms of service. Others may end up being removed if the publishing website cannot verify the legitimacy of the review. Another common occurrence leading to a deletion is if the person writing the review cannot be identified or at least confirmed as having truly been a customer or client. Finally, sometimes the entity hosting the review’s content or publishing it will remove it if an investigation leads to a conclusion that the review is incorrect or unfair.

Oh, and we should mention one other scenario, since, after all, we are lawyers . . . the threat of legal action may make such a review go away, independent of the factors above.

 (Click here for Part 1)     (Click here for Part 2)

(Part 2) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on by g83js92js91
Categories: business disputes, Business Law & Contracts, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media, Tech Tips
(Click here for Part 1)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as business lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of online reviews and/or ratings given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the second.

(2) Contacting the person who wrote the negative review. Be careful if you are contacting the person who made the negative review. While this can sometimes be effective, there are a number of reasons one should be hesitant to do this.

First, you have to consider whether you are going to be able to communicate politely and without expressed emotion, given the topic at issue and the likely hood that you feel wronged. Also, if the reviewer seems to have exaggerated or provided inaccurate information, how confident are you going to be that (s)he are going to respond to you in a reasonable fashion? Further, you always run the risk of the conversation not going well, or at least not going as planned. It’s even possible that you may think the conversation went well, but the complaining party did not appreciate it. This could result in the former customer updating/expanding the initial negative review.

We’re not suggesting that you should never reach out to a complaining customer or client. We’re emphasizing that if you are going to make contact with someone who has issued an online complaint against your business, make sure it’s done carefully and with some advance consideration. 

In some ways, as a trial lawyer, this makes me think of the debate within my profession about asking a judge to “Strike that from the record and instruct the jury to disregard it.” This objection and request happens all the time in trial (especially on TV, it seems). Many of us think that a jury being told to disregard the offending testimony/evidence will actually have the opposite effect – that information has been singled out for greater attention, and may end up being further cemented in the jurors’ minds. In other words, sometimes you are better of either ignoring such situations or handling them in a low-key manner as opposed to potentially aggravating the situation.

However you handle this – and hiring an attorney to deal with it is sometimes an option worth considering – be careful.

(Click here for Part 1)