How to Reply to a Negative Google Review Thats Borderline Libel
Bad Online Review? Call up Twice Before Freaking Out and Suing
The Internet is bloated with over-opinionated jerks. Everyone knows this; but it's never anything to lose sleep over until someone comes afterward you personally. If your reputation is attacked by an anonymous online user on Yelp or some other public site, what should you practise?
First, take a deep breath. Before you practice annihilation, think about how your reactions will make you appear. Possibly the worst matter you lot tin can exercise is freak out and threaten to sue.
One Virginia clearing attorney learned this lesson the hard way, sending a cease and desist order to a unmarried Yelper who took issue with his views on "anchor babies." At present, chaser Kyle Barella is facing publicity much more than damaging than one negative online review. And he'southward just one proper name in a long list of attorneys who've turned a bad review into an outright disaster.
A Bad Review Isn't Per Se Libel
Barella'south saga began after he appeared on the bourgeois news website Breibart and called for an end to birthright citizenship. There's nothing incorrect with delving into a controversial issue -- it tin exist cracking free press -- but attorneys need to be prepared to take some criticism for their public opinions. And that's just what Barella got -- a single, one-star Yelp review (Barella's only review at the fourth dimension) wondering why an immigration chaser would "concur political views that are very strongly anti-immigrant and borderline racist."
Now, Yelp reviews affair. Though Yelp hasn't taken over the lawyer-review earth, many customers who use Yelp will refuse to even consider businesses with under iii stars. Barella plain took Yelp's importance seriously. Merely, instead of replying with an caption or contacting Yelp to remove a not-customer review, Barella did what so many lawyers exercise instinctively. He threatened to sue.
The problem? Barella's end and desist letter was incorrect. Though he claimed the review was libelous and defamatory, the author's statements are very conspicuously protected opinions. Barella'south threats may have gotten the review removed, but they likewise got him mocked throughout the Cyberspace, including the well-trafficked constabulary and gratuitous spoken language weblog Popehat.
Of form, Barella isn't the offset lawyer to accept threatened litigation against a disgruntled online poster. New York divorce lawyer Gary Field had an unhappy customer postal service online, branding him "the most worst attorney licensed to do in the State of New York ... Overall, he is dumb." Worse, the reviewer said Field was a "fool chaser" who "practices fraud." Dissimilar Barella, Field didn't just threaten to sue, he actually did -- and saw his case quickly tossed out by the courts.
Recollect Twice Earlier Engaging Online Reviewers
Lawyers who don't threaten reviewers with litigation should all the same be cautious before jumping into a back-and-forth with online reviewers. Sure, if someone actually misrepresents facts or outright lies, a defamation accommodate may exist possible. But, in many cases, lawyers could be opening themselves up to further complaints by engaging with online reviewers.
Offset, overzealous and potentially dishonest terminate and desist letters can blow up in your face, as Barella learned. Secondly, if the reviewer is a former client, there'south the risk that you will reveal confidential information during your online message state of war. That's exactly what happened to Betty Tsamis, who allegedly responded to a bad online review with details of her representation and institute herself earlier an attorney disciplinary board.
Then learn from these lawyers' mistakes, lest their suffering be in vain.
Related Resources:
- On Yelp, Doctors Get Reviewed Like Restaurants -- And It Rankles (NPR)
- Is it Ever Wise to Sue Your Client for Defamation? (FindLaw'due south Strategist)
- Yelp! Negative Reviews Require Professionalism, Ethics (FindLaw'south Strategist)
- This Lawyer Just Failed Blogging and Social Media Basics (FindLaw's Strategist)
Source: https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/strategist/bad-online-review-think-twice-before-freaking-out-suing/