The Virginia Law Foundation, through Virginia
CLE, governed by representatives of the Virginia
State Bar, the Virginia Bar Association, and seven
of Virginia's law schools, is offering the highly
acclaimed Dozier Internet Law's Online
Defamation Seminar for Attorneys.
Please note that as a defamation lawyer we only
handle business-related internet defamation of
character matters. If you are a business or
professional, you can call us for a free
consultation.
Lies are being told about companies every day on
the web. Defamation of character and internet
defamation are becoming commonplace. With the
proliferation of Weblogs, anyone can say anything,
and the next thing you know the major search engines
have indexed it at the top of their results. As an
internet defamation lawyer we can help you get the
indexed results and website or blog that contains
statements aimed at defamation of character removed
from the search engine results, get the defamation
on the Internet down, and flex the muscle of a
seasoned defamation lawyer specializing in Internet
litigation.
How often does internet defamation and related
defamation of character happen? A lot more than you
realize. Oftentimes the only way to know about it is
to search the engines. Here is a sampling of the
issues we have worked on as a defamation lawyer:
A prominent online business was targeted on
a weblog through internet defamation, and the posts
escalated to the point that death threats were being
made and a map to the company headquarters was
posted. Google had indexed the blog in the first
position whenever someone searched for our
client.
A small business was defamed by a competitor
launching a website and going so far as to post a
portion of the owner's credit report.
A world-renowned professional in a controversial
subject matter found that a website was publishing
false claims about him, damaging his reputation and
credibility. Since he was often an expert
commentator on TV, this was a significant problem
that had to be addressed.
A former employee launched a website attacking
our international client.
An ex-girlfriend published false information
about her boyfriend's company, which was indexed by
search engines.
Industry bulletin board posts from a former
customer claimed that our client was running a
"scam" operation.
A consumer protection "review" site seemed to
always return extremely negative and detailed
reviews of any company not advertising on the
site.
An unhappy customer launched an extensive
website critical of our client, including false and
misleading claims and altered documents.
A nationally recognized speaker was defamed on a
series of "review sites" surreptitously run and
controlled by competitors and indexed high on the
major search engines.
A prominent University professor was told of a
site with his name and photograph falsely claiming
the he was a convicted pedophile.
A long established and upstanding franchise
company was attacked on scam reporting sites by a
disgruntled former franchise holder.
A foreign government listed our client on a
government agency website selling unregistered
securities when the investment/venture fund was not
required to register under the law.
A joint venture fell apart, and a disturbed
participant used the web to attack our client by
launching a derogatory replica of our client's site
and advertising it through a pay per click
campaign.
A dissatisfied distributor of our client's
products used a copy of the client's e-mail customer
list to send out defamatory emails to all of the
client's customers.
Our European client was defamed on a website
chat board in the US despite clear liability under
UK law for the publication of such information
accessible by its UK customers.
A former employee initiated a "spam" campaign
involving the mailing of millions of emails
purporting to be from our client, resulting in a
deluge of irate responses and threats as well as ISP
blacklisting.
Competing companies started posting links to
state consumer affairs offices trying to get an
investigation undertaken of our client.
Dissatisfied customers of our client decide to
publish defamatory statements that quickly show up
on the first page of organic Google results.
Our client's business was initially referred to
by a popular blogger as a "scam", an inaccurate
description requiring immediate attention since the
results were showing up at the top of Google's
results.
A business was told it would have to pay a very
significant amount of money for a defamatory posting
to be removed from a rip off reporting site.
A fast growing web company had a disgruntled
employee go directly to several federal agencies,
potentially resulting in the initiation of an
investigation.
An internet company was sued for a declaratory
judgment on the West Coast resulting from our
client's complaints about defamatory posts and
threats of legal action before we were hired.
The major business bureau issued a fraud warning
on our client, threatening the existence of its
business, without having conducted adequate due
diligence and appropriate analysis to fully
understand the nature of the business.
An unknown party was posting a photograph and
defamatory statements about our client, a well known
internet businessman, leading to embarassing
questions and inconvenience.
Our client, a leading international physician,
was faced with a disgruntled former patient
undertaking a web based campaign to impugn his
reputation.
The President of an online marketing company was
in the "cross hairs" of a former client. The former
client launched a site dedicated to attacking our
client's business and posted links on a major scam
website to his personal site, demanding money to
take it down.
A high profile lawyer had been under
investigation in the late 1990s in connection with
fraudulent transactions. No charges were ever
brought, but the original newspaper articles (with
inaccuracies) remained on the web for all the world
to see, highly indexed in Google results.
A disgruntled customer posted a string of
defamatory comments on its website and demanded an
exorbitant sum to take them down.
A former customer of our homebuilder client
posted doctored images on the web showing alleged
shoddy workmanship.
A major financial industry company had a
disgruntled customer launch an all out attack on the
company on the website, in chat rooms, on bulletin
boards, and in the press.
An "industry rating" website had our client
baffled...the great majority of complaints were
about them. After investigation, it became clear
that the site was owned and controlled by its chief
competitor.
Our physician client's reputation was attacked
when a competitor posted disparaging feedback on a
medical industry rating site.
Our client, a popular band's lead singer, was
defamed online through a compaign publicizing false
images posted and distributed online.
A major publisher ran a story years ago on our
client which contained major factual inaccuracies
that were derogatory in nature and the story is now
indexed by major search engines and readily
available.
An auction house client's quality of goods sold
are placed in a false light by a competing
auctioneer through extensive posts on industry
websites.
An international stock trading consulting
website client located in the Middle East is
attacked by a competing site falsely claiming its
proprietary formula for evaluating and managing
publicly traded stock transactions does not
work.
Our client, an online trainer for stock day
traders, is the target of a competitor's false
claims through a form of comparative advertising in
which the quality of our client's services is
misrepresented.
A prominent professional and college professor
retained us because a former business acquaintance
posted false information about him on the most
popular industry site for his profession.
A major business consulting firm (our client)
was the target of an extortion attempt through the
launch of websites attacking the company.
A purported "scam" reporting site and a "rip
off" reporting site teamed up to launch an extortion
effort against our client by permitting, and
encouraging, the publication on the sites of
defamatory comments.
A major niche retailer retained us because a
disgruntled customer was posting false information
about our client on the industry bulletin
board.
Our innovative marketing client in the real
estate industry had a former employee begin
publishing false statements online and then he
demanded extortion payments in order to stop.
Our governmental affairs client was faced with
online hatchet jobs carried out by opposing
political interests.
A real estate company was attacked by a
competitor through a campaign of false accusations
online.
A software development community website was
being defamed and labeled a fraud by parties located
in the UK, Eastern Europe, and Middle East.
A former employee of our IT technology
consulting firm client was posting false allegations
on job sites and in emails to employees and
contractors.
Online forums contained long dialogues between
multiple parties of false and disparaging comments
about our client, a prominent businessman.
A law firm retained us after it had been the
subject of a series of newspaper articles that
contained false information, were now available
online and at the top of search results.
A prominent consultancy was being victimized by
grossly false and reckless "factual" claims on a
major business industry forum.
A residential construction client was the
subject of an online attack containing false claims
by a former customer.
Our internationally known physician client was
faced with a website launched solely to publish
falsified photographs of his work by a dissatisfied
former patient.
A franchise company was faced with high search
engine ranked blog attacks alleging fraud, all
stemming from disgruntled former franchisees working
together.
A local retailer's competitor started publishing
false assertions of illegal conduct, which led to
the risk of law enforcement authorities getting
involved based upon false information.
Our client's major online competitor funded and
supported a "review" website that appeared to be an
objective gripe site exposing misconduct; not
surprisingly it contained a string of negative posts
about our client.
Ater entering into a settlement agreement with a
non-disparagement clause, our client's competitor
began publishing false and defamatory information on
its site about our client.
A group of individuals banned from our client's
popular forum formed a competing forum focused on
disparaging our client's reputation.
A search engine optimization company was
attacked by a competing company through the
publication of accurate facts portrayed in a false
context.
A convicted child molester and extortionist
launched a website claiming to have acquired an
ownership interest in our client's leading business
consultancy.
The Hollywood movie database falsely listed our
client, a successful businessman, as having acted in
adult movies as a porn star.
A family entertainment industry forum was used
by disgruntled customers to attack our client's
business with false accusations.
Our client's mortgage industry product was
attacked (product disparagement) by a web based
mortgage broker attempting to push competing
products and drive traffic to his site with high
ranking organic search on our client's product
name.
A disgruntled former employee launched a website
attacking his former employer with false claims of
criminal misconduct.
A competitor to our client in the vitamin and
food supplement online industry launched a "scam
report" website which, of course, had extensive
false postings concerning our client and others in
the industry.
A consumer advocacy website and other online
venues contained defamatory postings about our
client's highly successful online jewelry
business.
Our realtor client was being attacked by another
business on a review site and the results were
coming up on the first page of organic search
results.
A consulting client was being defamed through
the association of her company with alleged
misconduct of someone else, and the posts were
coming up in organic search results for her
company.
A prominent physician was falsely alleged to be
a pedophile on a popular website.
A business seminar company was defamed by false
postings on industry boards from a dis-satisfied
student.
Porn sites were using our prominent business
executive's name in meta tags to attract traffic,
giving the allusion of an association with the
sites.
Our client was accused of being a "cyber-
stalker" by an affiliate marketer working for a
competitor.
An attorney was attacked on a popular gripe site
by an unknown party alleging a broad array of false
charges.
A monastery hired us because it was under attack
by an estranged member posting heretical and
malicious statements on the Internet.
A business representative generating significant
referrals was banned from a forum after third party
competitors posted false claims of fraud and deceit
and the moderator banned her.
Competing companies were attacking a new
business on multiple blogs with the publication of
lies and meritless allegations.
A new website needed a risk assessment of the
likelihood it would get sued for statements made on
a site intended to be a sounding board for an
industry.
Several “scam reporting” sites were carrying
defamatory statements attacking our client’s
business posted by allegedly unhappy customers.
A construction company was the subject of a
website launched falsely attacking its business
practices by a party owing over $50,000 for
construction word satisfactorily performed.
A consultant was alleged to be operating a scam,
according to postings on an industry board; a
bulleting board that was conveniently located on its
primary competitor’s website.
We were hired to represent an individual sued
due to postings he made on a newsgroup about a
company.
An automotive parts supplier was defamed on
numerous industry boards by an individual unhappy
with his product.
Our client was publicly, but falsely, accused by
a major industry site moderator of posting positive
product reviews on its own products, a practice
known as “astroturfing”.
A prominent physician was alleged to be
practicing both sexual harassment and racial
discrimination by an anonymous poster on a “gripe
site”.
Our martial arts client’s business was attacked
online by false postings on numerous industry sites
by the same individual.
We were retained to pursue a poster alleging
that our client, a mainstream Internet hosting
company, was an email spammer and porn
purveyor.
A wedding photographer was alleged to be
incompetent by a groom who posted false statement
about his wedding photographs on a major industry
site.
A European company retained us because a
disgruntled ex-employee had purchases a domain name
and launched an attack website against our
client.
Our client, a former high profile US government
lawyer, launched a new web business supporting our
troops in Iraq and a new “scam review site” was
launched falsely complaining about his product
before any product was distributed or sold.
An internationally renowned musician hired us
because a website owned by lawyers representing food
industry personnel had false posts about his
restaurant’s practices.
A plastic surgeon was the victim of false
allegations relating to a nose job and related
extortion demands.
A prominent medical industry forum and website
was used by an employee of a major medical company
to falsely allege improprieties by our client who
was a fellow employee.
A top athlete in a niche sport was the subject
of false and damaging statements on the industry
forum.
Our IT consulting client’s immigration practices
were falsely labeled “illegal” on blogs and in
forums focused on immigrant rights.
A website owner was defamed online and bodily
harm threatened in emails sent from an allegedly
dissatisfied client.
A Chinese technology company’s owner and the
company itself were being attacked with a broad
range of outrageous and false accusations on
industry leading forums.
A realtor was threatened in emails and falsely
attacked online by the wife of an acquaintance, and
we were hired to assist in the criminal charges that
had been brought by local prosecutors.
A television personality’s integrity and
reputation were attacked on multiple sites to the
point that the only results on Google searches for
our client were absurd, false, and very damaging
claims.
A liberal animal rights organization provoked
extensive, outrageous and false attacks against the
family of an individual allegedly involved in animal
cruelty.
A syndicated radio and television personality
was under attack by an obsessed blogger turned
website owner who was launching new websites
dedicated to attacking our client with false and
malicious accusations.
A realtor selling a real estate tycoon’s
condominium project was targeted and attacked online
by a disgruntled purchaser.
A well known scientist was the subject of an
online stalker and she was constantly trying to
disrupt his business projects.
An education related web business was attacked
with claims by former customers that our client’s
business was a “scam”.
A company in the Bahamas was the target of the
posting of false and misleading pricing information
that caused prospective clients to insist upon price
reductions.
Unknown parties launched a campaign against our
client claiming his business was a fraud and
operating in violation of law.
If it really matters, then you need a defamation
lawyer who knows the Internet, the web, the
netizens, the scofflaws, the scams, and the details
of the business of the web. As an Internet
defamation lawyer, we live and breath the business
of the web every day, and we are called upon by
Fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop corner
businesses to solve the toughest problems. Whether
you are faced with rampant internet defamation of
character or a specific case of defamation of
character of your business, you need Dozier
defamation lawyers. Call us. You will be surprised
by our depth of experience and breadth of
knowledge.
Dozier: The Internet Defamation
Lawyer.
"Thank goodness for John and his team. With their trial
record, technology expertise, and legal and business perspective,
they have been a godsend...."
The
Online Business Cyber-Attack: DEFAMATION