Defamation Lawyers

The founder of the firm, John W. Dozier Jr., is the author of the "Ten Personas of Scofflaw Bloggers". You can review this list on the main Dozier Internet Law defamation lawyers website and decide for yourself what your company is really facing in protecting your online reputation. John is rated by other lawyers and judges as having reached the height of professional excellence and the highest levels of skill and integrity and is licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Below are some of John's thoughts as a defamation lawyer on the online defamation issue:

It is not surprising that the most prevalent platforms for defamation are chat boards or forums on which competitors, acting like customers, offer up damaging "testimonials" about how your company ripped them off. Of course, the author, purely for the benefit of public consumption and protection, helpfully points out that all of the people working for your company are crooks, or felons, or wife beaters. The general public, your customers and your vendors often view these comments on "public service" sites as unbiased and, therefore, truthful. If you rely on the Web to drive business sales, how many unknown prospects went elsewhere after researching your company?

Unfortunately, these are complex matters to solve even for expert defamation lawyers. Search engines, Web sites, chat boards, "public service" sites, rating sites and the like generally won't agree to remove a defamatory post without a court order, no matter what you might hear from your local defamation lawyers. After all, Congress gave them immunity from liability. There are ways, however, to deal with online lies without using defamation lawyers in litigation.

Sometimes the site publishing the statements is not a "service provider" since it actually influences content, and therefore is not immune. The realization of possible litigation tends to get the attention of the site proprietor if a convincing theory of liability is put forth.

Sometimes the poster can be tracked down and identified through research. An author facing a lawsuit can often be motivated to remove the offending postings. An employee's actions are often imputed to a company, so that legal notice to a business that is a suspected source can reap dividends.

In the end, though, if litigation with defamation lawyers does become necessary to identify the author and to seek damages and an injunction, the anonymity of the Web often dissolves. The chance of identifying the author is high if you move quickly. Remember that most Web sites and ISPs keep log files and access records for between 30 and 90 days, so time is of the essence.

Defamation Lawyers for Web Businesses

Dozier Internet Law is a pre-eminent top rated (AV) defamation lawyers firm and is the largest Internet defamation lawyers firm in the world specializing exclusively in the law of the Internet.

CV, BV and AV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. The information on this site is not intended to constitute legal advice and communication via email, telephone, or in writing with an attorney does not constitute the creation of an attorney-client relationship until a formal, written legal retainer agreement is signed. We rarely set forth case results on this site because of lawyer ethics considerations. Sometimes we will link to a decision involving our law firm. Whatever the reference to legal results in a particular matter, please understand that case and matter results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each such case or matter, and prior case or matter results do not predict or guarantee a similar result in future cases or matters. John W. Dozier, Jr. is the responsible attorney for this website, which is Attorney Advertising. A legal ethics requirement is that we state the following: CASE RESULTS DEPEND ON A VARIETY OF FACTORS UNIQUE TO EACH CASE, AND PRIOR CASE RESULTS DO NOT PREDICT OR GUARANTEE A SIMILAR RESULT IN FUTURE CASES. Our refund policy is to refund all remaining fee deposits at the end of the month of a file closing.

Defamation Lawyers: Contact

Remember, you can visit the main Dozier Internet Defamation Lawyers Website for more information on our Internet Defamation Lawyers law firm and our services, and to access a library of information about the law of the web, including podcasts, videos and articles.