Could U Sue Someone Who Lie and Write Bad Review
When you're edifice a business, you want to practice everything you tin can to provide stellar products and/or services to your customers. When you lot operate at a high standard, yous'll gain a reputation as a business organisation that people can trust and rely on—and that reputation will continually drive new customers your way.
Online reviews play a huge role in building that reputation. When potential customers research your business and read glowing, five-star reviews, they're going to want to reach out and do concern with y'all. Merely if they read a bad review (fifty-fifty if information technology's biased, unfair or completely untrue), it'due south going to do the opposite—and send those customers straight to your competitors.
Equally a business possessor, you want to do everything you lot can to effectively deal with negative reviews so they don't ruin your business organisation' reputation and continue customers from working with you.
But what practice yous practise when you get an unfair or untrue comment? How practise yous handle the situation? And can y'all (or should you) take it equally far as suing for defamation?
Contents
- Who Can Yous Sue Over a Bad Review?
- Can You Sue Review Sites Directly?
- What Can You Do?
- What Non to Do
- Deal With Bad Reviews Finer
Who Can You Sue Over a Bad Review?
To be honest, the answer is: It depends.
For the most part, reviews are covered under the Commencement Amendment, which protects free speech. Additionally, 34 U.S. states have passed Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) laws. Anti-SLAPP is intended to prevent people or businesses from silencing or censoring their critics by intimidating them with the threat of a lawsuit.
Thanks to these protections, if a customer is unhappy with your products or services, or the experiences they've had with your business, they have the right to say so—whether that be in person, over the phone, or online.
In that location are, however, exceptions. If a customer posts a review that is factually inaccurate or contains accusations virtually your business that are untrue, you may have grounds to sue the online reviewer for defamation.
The best manner to distinguish between the 2? Any review that contains a client'south opinions or factual information about your business would exist covered under gratis speech. Some examples of content that would be covered nether the Get-go Amendment include:
- "That business charges an arm and a leg!"
- "I wasn't happy with the level of service I received."
- "The client service representative was rude."
On the other hand, whatsoever review that contains breathy factual inaccuracies that harm your business could be grounds for a defamation lawsuit. Some examples of content that might allow you to sue (bold the content is untrue) include:
- "This company does not have a license to provide their services."
- "One of the workers stole an expensive watch while painting my home."
- "This company charged me for services that they never delivered—and have refused to return my money."
Before you even consider suing, brand sure you distinguish whether the comment would fifty-fifty authorize as defamation—or if it would be protected under the Start Amendment.
Tin You Sue Review Sites Directly?
In that location are certain scenarios where you would be able to sue a reviewer over a bad review (namely if it contained factual inaccuracies that harmed your business organisation).
But what nearly the site where the review is hosted? Can you go higher up the customer and sue the review site directly?
Every bit information technology turns out, you can't.
Under the U.S. Communications Decency Act, websites cannot exist held liable for publishing whatever content written by a tertiary political party—and that includes review sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, Healthgrades, and Angie'southward List.
So if the review site doesn't alter or modify the content or meaning of the original annotate? They're protected from any potential libel or defamation suits, which means you can't sue them.
What Can You Do?
If you lot happen to come across a negative comment well-nigh your business, what should yous do? Is filing a defamation lawsuit a viable option?
The truth is, information technology takes a significant amount of time, coin and free energy to hire a lawyer and bring a accommodate to court in gild to get a bad review removed from a review site. But, if the comment is extremely harmful to your business (and you can evidence it to be fake), it may be worth that time, coin and energy. If not, at that place are other, more practical ways to bargain with a bad review.
Some strategies you can use to effectively deal with a negative review online include:
- Request the website to remove the online review. If someone has posted a comment that's both negative and factually inaccurate, you lot can request that the website remove it past making your case that the information in the review is simulated. Simply proceed in heed that they're under no obligation to remove the review.
- Post a thoughtful, gracious response. Arguably the best way to deal with a negative review? Posting a thoughtful, gracious response. Address whatsoever issues brought up in the review, share how your company is working to ensure it doesn't happen again and offer a solution to the customer. For case, if they had a negative client service, yous might apologize and offer them a discount code for a future purchase.
- Generate more positive online reviews. One of the best ways to combat negative reviews? With plenty of good reviews. Strive to offering the best products and/or services to your customers, make sure they're satisfied and and so ask them to post a review.
If you ultimately decide to move forward with a lawsuit, it's important to consult a lawyer immediately. And specially earlier you invest too much time, money or energy into the process. They can give you deeper insights on your legal options, the viability of your instance and whether y'all might be able to successfully sue for damages.
What Not to Do
There are likewise a few things you definitely DON'T want to do when you lot find a negative review for your business, including:
- React immediately: Reading negative comments sting. And so when yous read one, your knee-jerk reaction may be to respond in the moment (e.g., past posting a comment defending yourself). But if you lot respond immediately, you lot may react poorly (eastward.g., lashing out because you experience aroused or insulted). Instead, give yourself time to cool off earlier yous write a measured response.
- Ignore the content: While information technology can be hard to read negative or critical things almost yourself or your business, if in that location's truth to the negative review, information technology can exist a growth opportunity. Don't immediately ignore the content of a review simply because it's negative. Instead, sit with it. See if at that place'due south whatever truth to what the review says and develop a plan to address the upshot moving frontward.
- Retaliate: If a comment is either insulting or spreading lies about your business organisation, you may desire to retaliate against the reviewer. Simply information technology's incredibly of import not to retaliate online because that retaliation tin can come up back to haunt you—especially if you lot programme to file a defamation adapt.
Here's a real-life example:
A contractor filed a $700,000 lawsuit against a homeowner who claimed on Yelp and Angie's List that he damaged her townhouse, billed her for work he never completed and stole her jewelry. Originally, the courtroom awarded the contractor a victory and ordered the homeowner to take downwards the comment about theft.
Simply before going to trial, the contractor posted his own negative comments in response, challenge that since the homeowner never paid, she actually stole from him.
Ultimately, the jury determined that while the homeowner defamed the contractor, the contractor's later negative remarks likewise defamed her—so no damages were awarded. Essentially, the contractor's online retaliation may have cost him a $700,000 settlement.
Deal With Bad Reviews Effectively
No one likes to encounter bad reviews for their business organization—especially if they're malicious, harmful or untrue. But at present that you lot know the most constructive ways to deal with them, you'll know how to navigate the situation next time yous come across a negative comment—whether that's by managing it on your own or consulting a lawyer to move forrad with a defamation suit.
This post was updated in Baronial, 2020.
Source: https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/can-you-sue-over-a-bad-review
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