Category: Jason A McGrath

(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)

 

5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on by g83js92js91
Categories: 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
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.