Is Starting a "Brand Defamation" Business a Risky Venture from a Legal Standpoint

[fstep2]

Is Starting a "Brand Defamation" Business a Risky Venture from a Legal Standpoint

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

My question involves business law in the state of: NYC

The concept is simple. When most people are wronged by a company they leave a bad review on yelp. 99.9% of the time that does not force the company to take any action. We have the marketing experience to teach people how to hit them where it really hurts and does significant damage to the company's brand image and ability to attain future business. Things like how to find their clients, how to make sites like ripoffreport come up at the top of google when people search for their name, how to craft a "proper" review that will leave lasting results and is found by more people, etc.

The concept is that we would only provide consulting, but our client would be the one responsible for doing the work. We would ofcourse have an attorney develop a proper TOS disclaiming us of any responsibility, but beyond that would doing this put us in any legal danger with the companies we help ruin?

 

[swalsh411]

So you expect people to pay for your advice on how to write reviews? All you will do is turn the internet into an even greater cesspool of idiocy, because you know people who feel they are wrong (whether valid or not) only ever tell their side of the story.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

My question involves business law in the state of: NYC

The concept is simple. When most people are wronged by a company they leave a bad review on yelp. 99.9% of the time that does not force the company to take any action. We have the marketing experience to teach people how to hit them where it really hurts and does significant damage to the company's brand image and ability to attain future business. Things like how to find their clients, how to make sites like ripoffreport come up at the top of google when people search for their name, how to craft a "proper" review that will leave lasting results and is found by more people, etc.

The concept is that we would only provide consulting, but our client would be the one responsible for doing the work. We would ofcourse have an attorney develop a proper TOS disclaiming us of any responsibility, but beyond that would doing this put us in any legal danger with the companies we help ruin?

When I first saw your thread and started reading, I was ready to think, "What a great idea. A business that helps people avoid writing defamatory reviews by teaching them the how-to's of good review writing."

I should have known better.

Yes, your idea could put you in legal danger with the companies or individuals you help ruin. The reason for this is that you would be directly involved in creating, and then enhancing, the reputational harm a business (or individual) suffers.

The way "gripe" websites avoid liability (although none of them have escaped lawsuits) is not through disclaimers, which only work to mitigate damages and not eliminate liability. Gripe websites operate by having a "hands off" policy - they let their customers do what their customers will do and all responsibility for what is written falls on the customer.

Because those with gripes who think to publish derogatory or defamatory reviews are generally angry people, and this anger gives them a skewed perspective, making them unable to see the whole picture, the reviews that are written and published tend to be lawsuit magnets.

Starting a business that helps people express their displeasure with an individual or a business in a mature (and legal) fashion could be an asset to the internet. Your business idea, if implemented, stands to result in exactly what swalsh has described - more internet idiocy - and I suspect you would be sued and I suspect you would lose.

 

[eerelations]

Posting history. OP is, to put it kindly, very unsophisticated.

 

[You Are Guilty]

Not to be a contrarian, but I think this is an excellent idea. . .


. . . for all the lawyers who will happily be suing you. Those Porsches do not pay for themselves!

{edit}
I knew this sounded familiar.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120654/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ql_6

 

[quincy]

Not to be a contrarian, but I think this is an excellent idea. . .


. . . for all the lawyers who will happily be suing you. Those Porsches do not pay for themselves!

I am not sure that "Brand Defamation" will generate enough revenue to support your Porsche payments, YAG.

It is my feeling that most negative-review writers are disgruntled ex-employees who were fired for misconduct and hate their former employer for catching them, or deadbeats who are upset with debt collectors chasing them over unpaid debts, or spurned lovers who wind up demonstrating nicely why they were spurned, or unemployed basement-dwellers who just like to complain about life's many little irritants (or one who is all of the above).

With this type of defendant, there is often not much money available to, one, pay a company to help them with their rants, or, two, pay damages awarded against them when they are sued and lose the suit.


(just saw your edit, YAG - there does seem to be a similarity)