As a lot of services have shifted online, online reviews have become a major part of purchasing services and products. Reviews form the primary foundation of a business and can make or break a business in an instant. Coming to the pressing problem of negative reviews, all online sellers agree that they have had to deal with negative reviews at some point in their career. Often sellers find themselves in a tight spot and face declining sales when presented with a negative review. However, did you know that you can actually sue a client for a bad review?
According to the law, it is actually possible for a business to sue a client who leaves a defaming review. However, the real question is whether you should do so or not? Although it can be infuriating to see negative feedback, especially after doing your best to deliver some work, you need to evaluate the review before jumping to conclusions.
You can sue the client, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. You see, suing is justified if a client leaves a defaming review, making it their job to insult your services, defame your business and raise false accusations, bringing personal emotions into the review. However, if a review just describes your service as a personal bad experience you can always explain it in a reply to a reviewer.
For instance, a patient leaving a doctor an online review that goes over 2000 words, describing the experience in an emotional rant is clearly a defamation. The client is unjustly targeting the doctor who may not be entirely at fault. Plus, such a review, posted on different sites clearly focusses on defaming the doctor and preventing other people from reaching out to him. In this case, the doctor should most certainly avail the help of the law in order to justify the review and remove the personal insult. Clearly, such a review not only defames him but also endangers his career as a doctor. Not only will he not be able to get patients, such a review can cost him his job!
When reviewing, clients need to take care about the language they are using and the points they are highlighting. They should be kind and fair. One can describe a bad experience in quite detail in 30 words rather than go on a rant for 2000 words. Clearly, n this scenario, whether it is a doctor, an e-commerce site owner or a businessman, claiming your right to sue a defaming client is fair. You have the full right to save your future and ask the buyer to justify his claims, rather than openly defame your business.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t overreact on minor mishaps as well. Sometimes clients can deduct 2 or three stars but this doesn’t mean that you start threatening to sure hi in order to change the review. This is too far and shouldn’t be encouraged. In conclusion, suing a client for a review is justified. However, you need to differentiate and justify the right occasion to do so.
