Defamation and slander

As an entrepreneur, you have a global digital presence. This provides enormous benefits, but also makes your business vulnerable to slander campaigns and fake reviews that can greatly damage your online reputation. However, private individuals can also suffer from this problem. Sirius Legal has the necessary expertise to take forceful action against such practices.

Building your online reputation can take a lot of time and effort. With a simple review or with pure slander, others can damage that reputation in seconds. Angry ex-employees who spread fake rumors within their professional network can result in your company losing clients and have to file for bankruptcy, a criminal offense that happened 20 years ago but can still be found online today in your name and making every job application seem to fail, missing out on assignments because you are being ripped off in fake reviews on social media…. These are all examples from our practice, each requiring a different strategy.

If you know the offender, you can first appeal to them to stop these defamatory activities and ask them to remove everything from the internet. If they do not do so or if you cannot find out their identity, then the website or platform on which the untruthful statements about you are published can be addressed.

But this is not always obvious and the right legal strategy needs to be well thought through, preferably  with the help of an expert in the field. Sirius Legal can assist you with this.

Do you have questions about slander or defamation? Book an introductory consultation.

Depending on the situation, we look at the author of the messages, the platform or media channel on which the posts are distributed and review the terms and conditions of those channels. We then attempt to identify authors, accomplices or any responsible administrators of social media pages. Depending on the content of the messages, we examine whether you can effectively and successfully provide a response, taking into account the balance that sometimes has to be struck between:

  • the right to freedom of expression
  • your right to privacy
  • your right to be forgotten
  • the effectiveness of defamation
  • the right to one’s good name
  • the right to information for every citizen

 

Finally,  we consider in cooperation with you which appropriate legal measures can be taken, among which are:

  • filing a criminal complaint in which you can file as a civil defendant,
  • sending a letter of formal notice
  • following the complaints procedure of the social media channel
  • sending a request to exercise your rights under GDPR
  • declaring the data subjects in default
  • Filing a subpoena in summary proceedings to obtain a swift removal of the posts concerned
  • claiming compensation through legal proceedings.

 

Each strategy is always carefully discussed in advance, including the budgets you wish to allocate to it. In many cases, your legal expenses insurer will intervene so that our costs are covered by the insurance. Thus, there is no reason to hesitate…

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Do you have questions about slander and defamation? We are happy to help!