Can You Sue Someone Who Wrote a Bad Review on Indeed
When you're building a business, you lot want to practice everything you lot tin to provide stellar products and/or services to your customers. When you lot operate at a high standard, you'll gain a reputation equally a business that people can trust and rely on—and that reputation will continually drive new customers your mode.
Online reviews play a huge role in edifice that reputation. When potential customers enquiry your business organisation and read glowing, five-star reviews, they're going to want to reach out and do business with y'all. But if they read a bad review (even if it'south biased, unfair or completely untrue), it'south going to exercise the contrary—and send those customers directly to your competitors.
As a business owner, yous want to practise everything you can to finer deal with negative reviews so they don't ruin your concern' reputation and go on customers from working with you.
Just what practice you do when you go an unfair or untrue annotate? How practise you lot handle the situation? And can you lot (or should y'all) take it as far as suing for defamation?
Contents
- Who Can You Sue Over a Bad Review?
- Can You Sue Review Sites Straight?
- What Tin can You Do?
- What Non to Exercise
- Bargain With Bad Reviews Effectively
Who Can Y'all Sue Over a Bad Review?
To be honest, the reply is: Information technology depends.
For the near part, reviews are covered under the First Subpoena, which protects free speech. Additionally, 34 U.Due south. states have passed Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits confronting 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.
There are, nevertheless, exceptions. If a customer posts a review that is factually inaccurate or contains accusations about your concern that are untrue, you may have grounds to sue the online reviewer for defamation.
The best way to distinguish betwixt the two? Any review that contains a client'south opinions or factual data about your business would be covered under complimentary speech. Some examples of content that would be covered under the First Subpoena 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 mitt, whatsoever review that contains blatant factual inaccuracies that harm your business could be grounds for a defamation lawsuit. Some examples of content that might allow y'all to sue (assuming the content is untrue) include:
- "This visitor does not take a license to provide their services."
- "One of the workers stole an expensive watch while painting my abode."
- "This company charged me for services that they never delivered—and accept refused to return my money."
Before you even consider suing, make certain you distinguish whether the comment would fifty-fifty qualify equally defamation—or if information technology would be protected nether the Beginning Amendment.
Tin You Sue Review Sites Directly?
At that place are certain scenarios where you lot would exist able to sue a reviewer over a bad review (namely if it contained factual inaccuracies that harmed your business).
Merely what about the site where the review is hosted? Can you go above the customer and sue the review site directly?
Every bit it turns out, you lot can't.
Under the U.S. Communications Decency Human action, websites cannot exist held liable for publishing any content written by a 3rd party—and that includes review sites similar Yelp, Google Reviews, Healthgrades, and Angie's Listing.
And then if the review site doesn't change or alter the content or meaning of the original comment? They're protected from any potential libel or defamation suits, which means you can't sue them.
What Can You Exercise?
If yous happen to come across a negative annotate about your business, what should you practise? Is filing a defamation lawsuit a viable choice?
The truth is, information technology takes a pregnant amount of time, money and energy to rent a lawyer and bring a suit to courtroom in society to become a bad review removed from a review site. But, if the comment is extremely harmful to your concern (and yous can prove it to be false), information technology may exist worth that time, money and energy. If non, there are other, more practical means to deal with a bad review.
Some strategies y'all can employ 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 by making your case that the data in the review is false. Merely go on in mind that they're under no obligation to remove the review.
- Post a thoughtful, gracious response. Arguably the all-time way to deal with a negative review? Posting a thoughtful, gracious response. Address whatever issues brought upward in the review, share how your company is working to ensure it doesn't happen again and offer a solution to the customer. For example, if they had a negative customer service, you might apologize and offer them a discount code for a future buy.
- Generate more positive online reviews. 1 of the best ways to gainsay negative reviews? With plenty of good reviews. Strive to offering the all-time products and/or services to your customers, brand sure they're satisfied and then ask them to post a review.
If you ultimately decide to move frontward with a lawsuit, information technology'south of import to consult a lawyer immediately. And especially before you invest too much time, coin or energy into the process. They can give you deeper insights on your legal options, the viability of your case and whether y'all might be able to successfully sue for damages.
What Not to Exercise
At that place are also a few things you lot definitely DON'T want to do when you find a negative review for your business, including:
- React immediately: Reading negative comments sting. So when you read one, your genu-wiggle reaction may exist to reply in the moment (e.g., by posting a comment defending yourself). But if you respond immediately, you lot may react poorly (e.m., lashing out because you lot experience angry or insulted). Instead, give yourself time to cool off earlier you write a measured response.
- Ignore the content: While it can exist hard to read negative or critical things most yourself or your business concern, if at that place'south truth to the negative review, it tin be a growth opportunity. Don't immediately ignore the content of a review but because it's negative. Instead, sit down with information technology. Come across if at that place's any truth to what the review says and develop a plan to address the issue moving forward.
- Retaliate: If a comment is either insulting or spreading lies about your business organization, y'all may desire to retaliate against the reviewer. But it'due south incredibly important not to retaliate online because that retaliation can come back to haunt you—peculiarly if you plan to file a defamation suit.
Here'southward a real-life instance:
A contractor filed a $700,000 lawsuit confronting 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 court awarded the contractor a victory and ordered the homeowner to accept down the comment nigh theft.
But before going to trial, the contractor posted his own negative comments in response, claiming that since the homeowner never paid, she really stole from him.
Ultimately, the jury determined that while the homeowner defamed the contractor, the contractor's later negative remarks also defamed her—so no damages were awarded. Essentially, the contractor'southward online retaliation may have cost him a $700,000 settlement.
Deal With Bad Reviews Effectively
No i likes to see bad reviews for their business—peculiarly if they're malicious, harmful or untrue. But now that y'all know the most constructive ways to bargain with them, you'll know how to navigate the state of affairs next fourth dimension yous meet a negative comment—whether that'south by managing information technology on your own or consulting a lawyer to move forward with a defamation suit.
This mail was updated in August, 2020.
Source: https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/can-you-sue-over-a-bad-review
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