Defamation is a legal term that refers to statements made by any party about an individual or entity to harm their professional reputation. The legal definition of defamation also encompasses two types of defamatory statements: libel and slander. Libel includes written information, while slander refers to spoken statements that defame another party. In business, defamation can cause damages that include emotional distress and financial loss. Your rivals or competitors can make harmful statements against your business to gain an unfair advantage. Therefore, there are different steps that you should take to protect your business. Read on to learn how you can protect your business against defamatory statements.
Purchase a Reputation Management Service
Reputation management services use different methods like threats of taking legal action against the publisher of defamatory statements. The aim is to prevent your business from appearing in a bad light in search engine results. These service providers also play a pivotal role in promoting good things about your business through the use of search engine optimization. If the publisher fails to pull down the libelous content, then more favorable content about your business in the search engine results pages can push it back. If the defamatory statements fail to rank high on search engine results pages, it becomes harmless. This strategy can go a long way in protecting your business while preventing costly litigation.
Prove Defamation
Defamation cases are complicated, and if you are thinking of taking your case to court, you need to seek legal advice from an experienced lawyer. The professional internet attorneys at revisionlegal.com explain that if you want to prevail in a case involving defamation, you need to prove that statement made against you as a private individual or business entity was false. Additionally, you must prove that the offender made the statement intentionally while fully knowing that it was false. Finally, you must prove that the statement was posted online, published in a newspaper, or broadcasted in a news bulletin.
If you can prove these elements, then the court can determine that you have suffered damages, and you could get compensation. Proving defamation against your business can be quite challenging, and this is the reason why you need to work with a knowledgeable and experienced lawyer in the area of internet law. Your attorney can give you legal advice concerning the merit of your case before you file a lawsuit against the alleged offender.
Keep the Defamatory Material
If you discover any defamatory material about your business, you should keep a list of URLs where it has been posted. You can use it as evidence, should you decide to file a lawsuit. You should not threaten the publisher of the information to take it down since they can report you to the police. You need to compile accurate records of all the defamatory statements then take appropriate legal action against them. However, if an independent user posts defamatory content on a third party’s website, try to ask the site to put it down. You need to be polite since they are not obligated by the law to do as you may wish.
Set up Google Alerts
The other method that you can use to protect your business against defamatory statements is to set Google alerts using Gmail. Combing through the internet to get details about your business can be cumbersome. With Google alerts, Google can send any statement about your business that is published on the web to your email inbox. This will help you to analyze the information and determine if it is libelous.
Utilize Client Feedback
You can ask your clients to provide feedback about your business. Essentially, positive feedback can override any negative content about your business. Additionally, you must also develop customer service policies and train your staff to resolve customer complaints quickly. Happy customers are likely to post positive comments about your business. As a result, this can weaken any negative statements made by your rivals. In most cases, potential buyers read customer reviews before they buy a product or a service offered by a particular business.
Defamatory statements by rival competitors or other parties can bring your business down as they can severely harm its reputation. In this digital age, any business can be a victim of defamation as other rivals may seek to gain an unfair advantage by mudslinging other players in the industry. There are different measures you can take to protect your business against such scenarios. But first and foremost, you need to seek legal advice from a professional lawyer who will help you build a strong case.
