Online slander Options

[justine]

Hi. I have a client who is a doctor. She has found several unfavorable comments about herself on an online physician referral service. She has asked them to remove it, and they won't. She is certain someone is doing it on purpose. Is there a way to help her? She has found some online places that charge a lot of money to "fix your online reputation". Are these legit? Any advice? She also thinks that seo can help. True? Thanks!
justine

[pandy]

No idea, but I guess it depends on what country you and above all what country the site is in and what they say about her. I doubt it's slander if they just say they they don't recommend her and state their reasons .

[Brian Chandler]

Hi. I have a client who is a doctor. She has found several unfavorable comments about herself on an online physician referral service. She has asked them to remove it, and they won't. She is certain someone is doing it on purpose. Is there a way to help her? She has found some online places that charge a lot of money to "fix your online reputation". Are these legit? Any advice? She also thinks that seo can help. True? Thanks!
justine

You mean "libel" (in print), not "slander" (in speech).

But of course your client can't expect things to be removed just because she doesn't like them.

If she has Lots and Lots of money though, she could try suing the victi, sorry, online referral service in England. The English courts are at the service of rich scamsters anywhere in the world who want to stop people telling the truth about them. (See http://www.libelreform.org/ ) See the example about how one of the Icelandic banks (laugh) sued a Danish newspaper in London for telling the truth about it six months before it collapsed (successfully, of course).

No, SEO has nothing to do with it, though if she still has Lots and Lots of money it's certainly another possibility to waste it on.

[geoffmerritt]

Is the referral service a paid membership, or a free service to your friend. If it is paid, maybe cancelling the service may remove her details from the referral services and any offending comments.

One would think that the service would have a method of resolving disputes and moderating comments.

[justine]

Thanks for the replies. This person has actually posted several times. We think it is from a "rival" physician in town as it is obviously not from a patient. This person is targeting her to reduce her approval ratings. The site is vitals.com and they refuse to do anything about it. Her main problem is that when people search for her, this is the 2nd listing they see on Google. Are there SEO ways for me to" knock this down" or do you suppose they are so big there is no way to do it?

Thanks again!

[crowdogs]

A recent NY Times article:
Venting Online, Consumers Can Find Themselves in Court
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us/01sla...?pagewanted=all

[pandy]

"When doctors start acting like businessmen, who can people turn to for doctors?"

[alf walters]

Your friend can invest some time in writing favourable articles and stuff.
I have a friend from school who wanted to look good online so he writes articles pinched from other articles calling himself a dr.
He keeps writing clever articles that make him look like a professor when people search for him online (if they do).
You can get a solicitor to find the websites owners address on whois.com and send them a letter threatening libel.
The website owner will not want the bother and probably remove it.
Then get them to write great articles on what they do and in a few short days their image is refreshed and brilliant.
Hope this helps you.