Skip to content
MS-Logo-UP
Client Reviews

1.800.481.2180

  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Blog
  • What We Do
    • Business & Contracts
      • Choosing a Business Lawyer for NC Corporations and Other Small Business
      • The Number One Problem for Small Limited Liability Companies
      • How To Dissolve a Corporation in North Carolina?
      • 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • (Part 2) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • (Part 3) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • (Part 4) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • (Part 5) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • Are Negative Reviews Really Bad for Business?
    • Limited Liability Company
      • Your New LLC – Part 1: The Basics
      • New LLC: Maintaining Limited Liability Protection
      • Your New LLC – Part 3: Federal, State and Local Registration, Licensing and Permitting
      • “Your New LLC” – Part 4: Transacting Business in Another State
      • “Your New LLC” – Part 5: Moving Your LLC to Another State
    • Mortgage & Foreclosure
      • Hearing Results
      • Mortgage Problems – Should You Trust Your Lender or Loan Servicer?
      • When to Hire an Attorney for Foreclosure and Mortgage Relief
      • Mortgage Loans: Recourse versus Non-Recourse and Foreclosure Related Deficiency Judgments
      • Negotiating with a Bank: Why do I have to Provide My Financials?
      • Can the HOA (Homeowners’ Association) Foreclose on my Home?
    • Real Estate Cases
      • Breach of NC Real Estate Purchase Contract – Buyer’s Damages in NorthCarolina
      • Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) – What is the Borrower Really Paying for?
    • Real Estate Closings
    • Disputes & Lawsuits
      • Business Contracts: What Should Yours Say Regarding Recovering Attorneys’ Fees in Case of Dispute? (Part 1)
      • Business Contracts: What Should Yours Say Regarding Recovering Attorneys’ Fees in Case of Dispute? (Part 2)
      • Arbitration versus Mediation
      • Responding to a Lawsuit Complaint
    • Tax & IRS Matters
      • S-Corp Tax Election for LLC
      • Comparison of Subchapter K v. Subchapter S
      • Employment Tax Considerations in Starting a Business
      • Is your Worker an Independent Contractor? (The IRS Cares!)
    • Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
      • Congrats, You’ve Inherited a Mess
      • When Should I Write a Will?
      • Top 5 Reasons to Change Your Will
    • Prenuptial Agreements
      • Recently Engaged? 5 Reasons Why You Should Consider A Prenup
    • Other Practice Areas
      • Indemnification in Contracts: What if Both Parties Are at Fault?
      • Indemnification in Contracts: Should You at Least Have to be Guilty as Charged?
      • Venue Clauses in Contracts – Beware Listing Only the County and State
    • Limited Scope Services
      • Arbitration Agreement: How to Get to Arbitration if A Lawsuit Was Filed First
      • Follow the Contract’s Arbitration Clause or File a Lawsuit?
      • Arbitration: setting the rules and identifying which arbitration organization will be used
      • Why does your Corporation or Company Need a Registered Agent?
  • Who We Are
    • Jason A. McGrath
    • James M. Spielberger
    • Kelly J. Brown
    • Todd E. Gonyer
    • Trent Grissom
  • Where We Practice
  • Client Services
    • Helpful Resources
    • News & Updates
  • Consultations
    • About McGrath & Spielberger’s Intake Form

Category: Internet & Technology

Jason McGrath Interviewed Regarding Internet Security for Law Firms andtheir Clients

Posted on March 15, 2015 by g83js92js91

Law firms warned to be vigilant against cybercrime – The Charlotte Business Journal

Jan 30, 2015 – The N.C. State Bar released ethics opinions about cybersecurity, and … so they can be more efficient,” says Jason McGrath,  partner at McGrath & Spielberger . . . . (click link above for full story or read it below)

Law firms warned to be vigilant against cybercrime
LEGAL INC. SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jan 30, 2015, 6:00am EST
Bea Quirk, Contributing Writer

At the Mecklenburg County Bar’s recent monthly luncheon, the speaker, FBI Agent Colleen Moss, told attendees that although small and midsized law firms don’t regard themselves as targets for hackers, they are. As supervisor of the Charlotte Division’s Computer Intrusion Cyber Squad, she knows firsthand the firms’ vulnerability, no matter the size.

“Anytime there’s a large pot of money involved — escrow, a trust — you’re going to be a target,” Moss told the lawyers. “Criminals look for the fastest and quickest way to make the most money possible. If they find any other data that’s usable and sellable on the Internet, that’s fair game, too.”

Hackers aren’t always subtle in their attacks, as seen in a form of malware called ransomware that is gaining popularity. Hackers install a “cryptolock” on a company’s files and won’t provide access until a ransom is paid, says Clark Walton, an attorney at Alexander Ricks. He has a digital forensics consulting business and previously worked in cybersecurity at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Moss and Walton say regularly updating operating systems, firewalls and antivirus software is the best defense.

Email remains the entry point of choice for hackers. Moss says up to 85% of incidents stem from phishing emails — messages that look legitimate that ask the recipient to click on a link or open an attachment. That allows a hacker to install malware that infects the user’s computer — and an entire system.

“These criminals are good at socially engineering emails that look legitimate or are designed to pull at your heart strings,” Moss says.

One such effort surfaced last year, when hackers were found to have penetrated pharmaceutical companies and their outside advisers in banking and law. Emails were written in “flawless English” and tailored to recipients, who were duped into revealing information that allowed hackers to profit in stock trades, The New York Times reported.

Moss says information on a firm’s website and employee Facebook pages can be used to create credible email. Even though employees of law firms are generally aware of the danger, Moss says they still fall for scams offering financial rewards in exchange for providing access to a checking account.

But law firms have a difficult situation to balance. They are businesses and need to respond to emails. They can’t be ignored, even if they appear suspicious. Moss suggests employees contact their IT department, server host or a consultant. She also recommends reporting apparent scams to www.ic3.gov, an information clearinghouse for Internet crime.

If a law firm in North Carolina is hacked, the state’s Identity Theft Protection Act mandates that customers and clients be informed. Moss also hopes a firm will contact the FBI, which might be able to curb additional damage. Doing so also helps the agency track criminals and can increase the public’s awareness of current scams.

Both the state and national bars are aware of the growing problem. The N.C. State Bar released ethics opinions about cybersecurity, and the American Bar Association published a guide to security.

Moss says cybersecurity is often a matter of risk management. Law firms must consider the costs of security and their tolerance for risk. Small firms must do this kind of analysis as their work and communications are increasingly digitized.

“Smaller firms are moving more to technology so they can be more efficient,” says Jason McGrath, partner at McGrath & Spielberger and chair of the Bar committee that organized Moss’ presentation. “You have to invest in security once technology becomes your bread and butter. It’s just common sense.”

Posted in charlotte business journal, cybercrime, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Jason McGrath News / Media, Life and the Law, The Legal Profession, virtual law

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

Posted on June 24, 2014May 2, 2022 by g83js92js91
(Click for Part 1)  (Click for Part 2)  (Click for Part 3)  (Click for Part 4)

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.

Star-Ratings

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 fifth.

(5) Turn a negative into a positive, or at least into an opportunity. This can’t work in all industries or all situations, of course, but what about turning the criticism into a promotional effort? For example, let’s consider the complaint of “I had to wait more than 30 minutes for my car to be cleaned at Acme Car Wash.” Perhaps the response from Acme is similar to this: “We regret you had to wait so long, but we were simply very busy that day with so many customers who know what a good job we do. Everyone should know that this month we have a 25% discount for our Premium Customer Club memberships, which allow you to make an appointment, among other benefits!”

This creative approach focuses on the positive, while still “apologizing” to the unhappy customer. It might even increase business. Find the silver lining.

Posted in Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, Consumer Defense, florida, Freedom of Speech, georgia, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, North Carolina, Ohio, online reviews, Social Media, south carolina, Tennessee

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

Posted on June 5, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
(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)
Posted in business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Customer Service, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media

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

Posted on May 19, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
(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)
Posted in business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, online reviews, Social Media

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

Posted on May 2, 2014May 2, 2022 by g83js92js91
(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.

Customer-Complaint

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)

 

Posted in business disputes, Business Law & Contracts, consumer reviews, Customer Service, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media, Tech Tips

5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on March 6, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
As attorneys with a law firm Charlotte 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.

Thumbs Down, disapproval, bad rating

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 first.

(1) Does the review contain opinion, “facts”, or both? As a general rule, it is more difficult to force the removal or editing of a review, once published, which contains merely an opinion. Stated from a legal perspective, a defamation claim is difficult, if not impossible, to bring regarding someone’s stated opinions, even if said opinions are perhaps unfair.

Thus, in some ways, a review such as “I spoke to the owner and could not believe how rude he was” is quite challenging to deal with. It is difficult to come up with an objective standard of what rude is and how to legally qualify “rude” behavior. In other words, this subjective interpretation of the owner’s alleged conduct is pretty much opinion and the accusation of rudeness is not a good basis for a defamation claim.

On the other hand, let’s take a second look at the above example to reconsider the fact vs. opinion issue: “I spoke to the owner and could not believe how rude he was.” Well, if we can’t effectively attack the “rudeness” aspect of this, what about something in that statement that can more easily be described as factual – something demonstrably true or false?

What if the individual to whom the consumer spoke was not the owner but merely a front line employee with no real managerial authority and the consumer knew that? That might be a whole different ball game. All of us, or at least most of us, can agree that a receptionist allegedly being rude to a customer would be less damaging in the eyes of other potential customers as compared to the owner of the business acting in such a manner. Of course, if you are talking about as going as far as a defamation suit, you would want very much to be able to prove that the consumer who posted the negative online review was aware that he/she had not spoken to the owner and had thus intentionally made a misstatement of fact.  

As you can see, this one example – a simple, single sentence review consisting of 13 words – can involve multiple legal issues and possibilities. Please stay tuned for updates on this topic, and please be careful how you handle these types of situations.

(Click for Part 2) (Click for Part 3) (Click for Part 4) (Click for Part 5) 
If you are interested in a consultation with one of the McGrath and Spielberger business lawyers, simply visit the Contact Us page and complete the contact form.

Posted in business, Business Law & Contracts, Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Reviews, Social Media

McGrath & Spielberger, PLLC

Tweets by JasonMcGrathLaw

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Lease or License: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter? – Part Three
  • Lease or License: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter? – Part Two
  • Lease or License: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter? – Part One
  • Comparison of Subchapter K v. Subchapter S
  • Registered Agent for your North Carolina Business – Can you be your own Registered Agent?

Sitemap

  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Where We Practice
  • Consultations
  • Blog

What We Do

  • Business & Contract Law
  • Limited Liability Company
  • Mortgage & Foreclosure
  • Real Estate Cases
  • Disputes & Lawsuits
  • Tax & IRS Matters
  • Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
  • Prenuptial Agreements
  • Other Practice Areas

Location

map

Directions

Contact Us

6201 FAIRVIEW RD, STE 330
CHARLOTTE NC 28210

info@mcgrathspielberger.com

1.800.481.2180


fb


tw


yt


ld

google

The attorneys responsible for this website are Jason McGrath and Jim Spielberger. At least some of the content of this website may be considered attorney advertising in some jurisdictions. For information about our website privacy policy and terms and conditions, please click here.

Attorney Website Design, Legal Search Engine Optimizations and Lawyer Online Advertising by Leads Online Marketing Services.