Review Sites & Getting Sued?

by jalamo
3 replies
I just started a review sites on colleges where users would log in and give there ratings and reviews on different places. I am just a small fry with very limited budget and wanted to get input on others as far as the potential of getting attorney letters telling me to take down comments, shut down the site, slander suits?

Obviously, I would try to moderate it the best as possible and take down anything so negative as to cause problems (don't forsee anything crazy just normal review site comments) but has anyone run into problems?

I think this is a valid question for any site, just wanted to get some opinions...

Thanks in advance
#review #sites #sued
  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
    It is a valid question and I would love to hear some opinions too.
    Thanks for bringing it up!
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  • Profile picture of the author craigraphael
    Jalamo,

    Nice post and since I run a review site, I have wondered this question. I did speak to an attorney before about this subject. The old "freedom of speech" thing was talked about a lot with her. The only thing that she did say to watch out for was that if you review a trademarked product, copyrighted, etc.....you should note that when posting it.

    Although I have negative reviews on my site, I really try to just post the truth. If you post things that are more truth versus your opinion, you will have a nice response and you will clear yourself from any legal issues.

    I DO have a disclaimer link on each page and I just mention that these reviews are my expressed opinion and I do not/will not really make any bold statements about a product or marketer UNLESS I have documentation to back it up....emails, etc.

    Hope this helps. Any questions? Please PM Me.

    Craig Raphael
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    • Profile picture of the author jalamo
      Thanks for the responses and insight. Craig, those disclaimer pages seem like a must have, i will have to start getting the wording in line.

      My review site is all user generated and people will be posting there experiences and giving there own opinions which either makes it more important or takes all of the risk away from me, since it is others posting comments.

      Funny thing is last night I went through amazon researching a product and looked at reviews before purchasing a product and some products had some negative (no vulgar or crude slander ect) just that the product didn't work for them, was made poorly, they hated it ect ect and it influenced me to look to other products. I thought to myself, man some of these reviews have to bury the sales of this product! But, if there was a way to get them out of there i am sure companies would do so.

      But sometimes defending bogus claims by attorney's can cost a lot of money for a little guy.
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