Monthly Archives: January 2014

This is a great article and absolutely accurate! I represent a number of small to medium business owners and have owned businesses for many years and I find the credibility associated with online ratings to be quite shocking. As the owner of a law firm I continually stress about having a client get angry about a result in court one day and write a nasty online review the next, especially on a site that doesn’t allow users to delete reviews.

I have one client in particular that has had to reinvent and re-brand his business a few times because of online reviews and another client that was the victim of a consumer complaint site and is spending thousands of dollars trying to resolve the claims, most of which are wholly unfounded. Yet another client had the ex-husband of a girl he went on a few dates with post that he was a pedophile and claim that his business utilized fraudulent practices and was being investigated. Sadly, those posts will probably never come down because no one wants to spend thousands of dollars suing someone who will fight a silly fight and declare bankruptcy at the end of it all. Unfortunately for one of my client’s ex-employees, he is willing to spend any amount of money to get her to remove comments she made online after he fired her.

I would be surprised if employees or employers have analyzed the potential liability associated with posts and responses, or really any content they put online about another person. It is my opinion that most businesses should have new-employee trainings about this topic so as to avoid future problems.

Business owners certainly do not often consider the impact online reviews can have on the sale of their businesses. Buyers can decrease the purchase price substantially if they have to fight bad reviews because getting enough good reviews to offset one bad review is time consuming and costly. Whether or not the review actually impacts the business is irrelevant in negotiations because a seller can’t really prove otherwise.

Something new that is happening in the law is the use of reps and warranties associated with goodwill and how future reviews impact present covenants. We will be seeing a lot of litigation in the future over poorly written or understood reps and warranties in purchase agreements.

Great article John!

John,
Thanks for the article, I am a “baby boomer” and agree totally! I was laid off after 6.5 years and after a year of being a ” you are too qualified for the position”, I decided to do something I could enjoy, and taught myself how to become a wholesale/retail Chocolatier! I have 4 years in the “business” and am finally growing and have learned a lot the hard way and I am more unique and happy. I do have 2 part time assistants that I feel will work,learn,grow with my company…but nothing is permanent so each day is a new door that I can open and enjoy the challenge. Thanks again!
Cathy