
Can law firms be liable for fake reviews? Pennsylvania firm says no - hhs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-otc-reviews/can-law-firms-be-liable-for-fake-reviews-pennsylvania-firm-says-no-idUSKCN1ST2N2
======
ohashi
If they were indeed family members and employees posting reviews and they are
all coming from the same IP address it seems like there is enough evidence to
warrant looking into it.

Also, they should be subject to the law like everyone else. If they are
behaving unethically and breaking advertising laws and deceiving consumers,
fuck them. They should be punished. Fullstop. Just because they are a law firm
doesn't grant them special privilege outside of the act of giving legal
advice. Fake reviews aren't legal advice.

If her allegations are true, I hope she wins and it sets a good precedent
about fake reviews.

~~~
gnicholas
Not only are lawyers subject to the law just like everyone else, they are also
subject to additional rules by the state bar. There are complex rules
governing attorney advertising, which have long applied to typical advertising
(e.g., TV commercials, magazine ads), and if they were indeed coercing
employees to solicit reviews that they know to be untrue, they would likely
fall afoul of some of these ethical rules.

------
nerdponx
_But according to Kraemer Manes’ filings in the Wolfe case, business cannot be
held responsible for what other people say about them online. The law firm
argued in its reply brief seeking dismissal that Wolfe’s theory would open a
Pandora’s box of liability for any business that failed to police online
reviews for accuracy._

That's preposterous. People (for the most part) don't just sit around writing
fake reviews for companies they have no dealings with. If fake reviews about
an organization exist, they were commissioned by the organization or its
associates. I guess you could try to get a competitor in trouble by creating
obviously fake reviews and hoping said competitor gets taken to court over
them; but that seems like a lot of trouble, high risk, and not something worth
worrying about.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this case.

~~~
sandworm101
>> That's preposterous. People (for the most part) don't just sit around
writing fake reviews for companies they have no dealings with.

Try being a defense attorney. Try defending murderers and rapists all day.
There are always more people angry at you than happy. And those that are happy
with your work, the murders and rapists you help, generally keep very quiet.
Those that aren't in prison are not going to be bragging online. What you will
get are angry relatives and victims lashing out at anyone connected with the
defense.

I used to teach a class with a public defender. He was afraid to walk alone to
his car at night. It wasn't his clients. They were generally all in jail. He
was afraid of the mothers of his clients' victims.

~~~
FireBeyond
We're talking about fake glowing reviews. Who has incentive to write these?

~~~
sandworm101
If the firm is going to be liable for policing the fake positive reviews,
anyone with an ax to grind.

~~~
vajrabum
Let me fix that for you. "If the firm is going to be for writing and
soliciting fake positive reviews...."

~~~
adrianratnapala
Sandworm is responding to the statement that:

> People (for the most part) don't just sit around writing fake reviews for
> companies they have no dealings with.

And

> If fake reviews about an organization exist, they were commissioned by the
> organization or its associates.

That is, to a proposed standard where the mere existence of the reviews causes
you legal problems as the solicitation part is presumed.

------
Cyclone_
"A number of positive reviews for this business originated from the same IP
address. Our automated recommendation software has taken this into account in
choosing which reviews to display, but we wanted to call this to your
attention because someone may be trying to artificially inflate the rating for
this business."

Ok the reviews were obviously fake if they came from the same IP. Seems highly
unlikely that several people from the same building would have just happened
to use the same law firm and all write glowing 5 star reviews.

I think that all review sites should require some sort of verification from a
reviewer that you actually were a customer of the business.

~~~
twblalock
There is a little bit of a problem with that.

I used to work at a company that did review aggregation and analytics. Car
dealerships were among our most important customers.

One dealership decided that they would set up a kiosk and ask customers to
write reviews on the spot. A lot of them did. These reviews all came from the
same IP address because they were written at the dealership's kiosk, and a few
review sites decided they were all fake and deleted them.

It was difficult explaining to those customers that their reviews looked fake,
even though they were not. At the same time, there were probably some other
dealerships where the salespeople were writing reviews and pretending to be
customers.

~~~
Cyclone_
True there are some places that do that, but I think it's probably not a good
practice to ask a customer to write a review while you're watching them on
premise. There just needs to be awareness that that sort of thing is not OK.

------
brownbat
This makes me curious who would be going "too far" in posting fake reviews.
What about the marketplace itself? Some of the Amazon brands have mediocre or
lower scores on fakespot:

[https://www.fakespot.com/company/goodthreads](https://www.fakespot.com/company/goodthreads)
[https://www.fakespot.com/company/happy-
belly](https://www.fakespot.com/company/happy-belly)

There are other explanations, but that really surprised me.

------
ohazi
Better headline would be "Can a regular person challenge a law firm and win?"

I don't think anybody would be surprised to learn that the answer is no.

~~~
DannyBee
The article certainly does not support that answer, nor does the amount paid
out in malpractice claims every year. In fact, law firms are probably amongst
the easiest things to sue and win in most states.

~~~
FireBeyond
Huh. Anecdote: I got divorced about five years ago. My ex's attorney was so
lazy/ incompetent/ etc. that she let him go. During the finalization of
things, I pointed out that in at least two filings, her attorney was so inept
that I went from being the the respondent to being plaintiff about half way
through the filings. And another clause was about division of commingled
property that we'd never owned (and that seemed obviously cut and pasted from
another client).

Those were decreed to be "honest mistakes", and not the result of negligence
or malpractice.

~~~
gubbrora
That sounds like such a strange situation to be in. Did you find your self
holding back to compensate for the incompetence?

------
ldoughty
I hope this gets attention and the fake reviews get counter balanced

~~~
colejohnson66
With fake reviews in the opposite direction?

