This post has been modified to reflect new information since its original publication.
Negative online reviews can be problematic for anyone, but they can be especially harmful for lawyers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re part of a large firm or a solo practitioner. Negative reviews attached to your name can have a devastating impact on your ability to attract new clients and retain existing ones.
Thankfully, the steps you can take to either remove or suppress negative reviews are easier to implement and understand than passing the Bar Exam.
But criticism is a pesky thing, and many lawyers approach reviews the wrong way, making their problems worse when it comes to handling online criticism.
This guide will walk you through the causes of negative client reviews, common mistakes attorneys make, and what your options are given the specifics of your situation.
*This article covers laws in the United States. Please refer to local regulations if you operate outside the US.
1. Top reasons why clients leave negative reviews
The reasons clients leave negative reviews are similar to the reasons they file disciplinary actions against you. Although, of course, the effort involved is much less when it comes to posting an online review.
Lack of transparency
According to the American Bar Association, one of the top reasons clients file disciplinary actions is that they simply don’t understand what’s going on—specifically speaking, poor communication or a lack thereof. The same holds true when it comes to your clients posting negative reviews.
The legal process can seem complex and byzantine to non-lawyers.
After all, that’s a big part of the reason your clients need your expertise in the first place.
You may be doing an excellent job of representing a client and protecting his or her interests.
However, if the client doesn’t see your work, it might seem like you’re not doing anything at all—yet the client still receives a bill at the end of the day.
This lack of transparency can lead to misunderstandings, and one of the easiest ways to vent frustrations is to post an online review.
You might be thinking “I didn’t get into law to be a teacher” but that is exactly the role you assume when it comes to explaining your actions and the outcomes you hope to produce for your client.
Lack of responsiveness
Similarly, clients expect to have their phone calls and emails returned within a reasonable amount of time (who doesn’t?).
If your practice schedule makes it difficult to do this, you will undoubtedly start to accumulate a few negative reviews about your perceived lack of concern.
This means you might need to make structural changes to your routine to allow you to respond better to client questions.
There are several legal project-management techniques specific to a lawyer’s workload you can incorporate to improve communication with your client.
These techniques include:
- Structuring time and resource requirements
- Leveraging technology
- Managing communication
- General project management skills
Unclear billing
Vague bills that simply list “X hours at Y dollars” are a surefire way to lose the trust of your clients.
Remember, your clients have few independent ways of verifying that they’re getting what they pay for, especially if proceedings are dragging on longer than expected or there are unforeseen complications. This ties back to “lack of transparency.” No one wants to feel they are being left in the dark.
As such, if your bills are too minimalistic, you are likely to attract negative reviews.
Instead, provide a more detailed breakdown of time spent, who did what, and what the purpose was.
When it comes to law firm billing, there’s technology to help you list expenses, descriptions, and more, which can help lower billing disputes and decrease negative reviews about legal billing.
Legal billing software has come a long way, making client billing management much easier.
Some factors that can lead to common legal billing disputes include:
- Unidentified additional charges
- Charges for unfinished work
- Poor documentation of billing hours
- Lack of communication about charges
These are just a few of the legal fee-related dispute reasons clients have.
Unclear expectations
Make sure your clients have a roadmap of how you expect their situations to unfold—and verify that they understand it.
Many negative lawyer reviews follow the format, “I was told X, but then they did Y instead.”
You can avoid this scenario with more careful client onboarding that includes a full explanation of charges and why they are needed.
You want them to ask questions, and you want to answer them. The more that clients think you are open to conversation, the less likely they are to feel they are being taken advantage of.
Don’t reserve your effective communication skills for negotiating with other lawyers and judges. Effective communication is a best practice for all aspects of your work, including giving legal advice to current and potential clients.
Excessive conservatism
In an unsure situation, the most prudent course for your clients is often the most conservative. However, this approach may not suit your client’s objectives.
People turn to a lawyer to protect themselves or to initiate some type of change.
So, if a client says, “My goal is to change X,” and your advice is predominantly, “Don’t do it / Too risky / Not possible,” the client may start to feel that you’re ignoring their wishes and taking the easy way out.
You might be better served by offering a range of options and letting the client calculate the risks.
2. Common mistakes in handling negative reviews
Even if you do everything right, you might still collect the odd negative review here and there.
When you do, there’s a right and a wrong way to respond.
Here are some of the mistakes lawyers commonly make when responding to negative feedback.
Suing the reviewer
If you have a clear-cut case of defamation, then you may be able to sue the reviewer. However, even in these situations, suing may not be the best course of action. (This is not legal advice. You should consult an attorney about what would work best in your situation.)
Consider the case of Kyle Barella, a lawyer who made some controversial statements about immigrants on the Breitbart News Network. His comments inspired a public backlash, with one individual publicly voicing his dissatisfaction on a prominent review platform.
Barella responded by threatening to the reviewer with litigation. Unfortunately for Barella, his claims were baseless and could possibly even have opened him up to liability, depending on the specifics of his state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws.
Furthermore, the suit did not lead to the review being retracted. To the contrary, it only drew more attention to the negative review.
There are strategies Barella could have used to get the review removed (more on this below), but he didn’t employ them.
Instead, he attracted more negative attention to himself and his firm. Even in cases where defamation is present, the risk of increased negative attention can often outweigh the rewards of suing the poster.
Suing the review site
Generally, online service providers can’t be held liable for content posted by a user. If the review violates the terms of the review site, you may be able to request it be taken down, but legal action against the site itself may not lead to success.
Demanding that the review be deleted
Most unhappy reviewers do not respond to demands or threats. In fact, the act of making the request can lead to further backlash, as was seen in the case of Kyle Barella.
Avoiding the real issue
If you see a recurring theme in your negative reviews, then chances are good the problem is on your end.
Take a look at what they’re saying and make operational improvements accordingly.
Otherwise, you will continue to see these kinds of reviews pop up.
Publicly criticizing the client
Regardless of who is in the right, a public attack on a reviewer reflects poorly on you and your ability to properly represent the interests of future clients.
More likely than not, you’ll just increase the ire focused against you and draw more attention to the reviewer’s criticisms.
Paying for fake reviews
This violates the terms of service of virtually all review sites, is illegal in many cases, and can put you in the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission.
More importantly, it doesn’t always work very well. Review sites have spent a lot of time and effort developing algorithms to filter out fakes, so your new reviews probably won’t show up anyway. Even if they do, fake reviews often don’t sound natural, which won’t inspire the trust of readers.
3. Deleting negative reviews
When you get a negative review, it’s usually not possible to get it removed. Instead, you’ll be better served by trying to obscure it with a flood of positive reviews.
That said, there are still a few situations where you can get reviews deleted.
Defamatory reviews
If the review makes defamatory statements that can be disproved, you might be able to get the review taken down.
However, the process for doing so can be complicated, drawn out, and may generate additional liability for you. Be sure to consult with a defamation lawyer before moving in this direction.
Off-topic or terms-of-service violations
In recent years, we’ve seen a trend toward “activist” negative reviews, in which consumers who have never been customers of a business post critical reviews to protest some action by the business or the business’s owners.
One of the most famous of these cases is that of dentist Walter Palmer, who went on a big-game-hunting expedition and posted a photo of him having killed a lion.
Subsequently, his practice’s review page was overrun with thousands of negative reviews, criticizing him for killing the animal.
Because these reviews were not about the dental practice and were not written by patients of the dentist, they violated the platform’s terms of service and were taken down.
Lawyers have had success getting these kinds of reviews removed from their pages by filing an official complaint that references the terms of service. Similarly, if you can prove that a review is fake or written by a competitor, then you can generally get it removed.
4. Suppressing reviews that can’t be deleted
Even if you can’t get a review deleted, you can often minimize its impact by burying it with an onslaught of positive reviews.
The best way to do this is to ask your most loyal clients to write you a review.
Here are some tips on how to do that effectively:
Send a personal note
Like most attorneys, you probably have many loyal, long-time clients who appreciate your work.
These clients have probably never thought of the idea of reviewing you but would be happy to do so if asked.
Reach out to them individually, explain the situation briefly, and ask them to write a review. Don’t tell them to say something positive, don’t provide a template, and don’t offer incentives.
Just say you’d like them to share an honest, balanced opinion that others would find useful.
Most people will rise to the occasion and write something more nuanced, personalized, and thoughtful than they would if you had tried to push them in a particular direction.
Email links to your review profiles
Make things easy on clients who might review you by sending them the links to your review profiles. This way, they’re only one click away from being able to write you a review.
Recommend review sites strategically
If you’ve got issues on a particular site, you may want to send reviewers there. However, there are some caveats.
For instance, review platforms tend to hide reviews by people who have never reviewed on the platform before. So, if you have negative reviews on that site, you should find out whether your client is already a reviewer.
If not, a better strategy is to google yourself, look at which review sites appear, and send the reviewer to one of those.
Similarly, consider the spread of reviews across your profiles.
Let’s say review sites X, Y, and Z show up in your search results—and you’ve got a lot of reviews on sites X and Y but not on Z.
Sending reviewers to the site with fewer reviews will have a larger impact than sending them to the established sites.
Final thoughts
As a lawyer, you understand the power of persuasion. You also understand how detrimental a review seen by thousands of people can be—even if it’s false.
If you’re looking to improve your online reputation or view what people see about you online. Grab your free reputation report card.
This resource instantly gives you live feedback about your online reputation when your name is searched. Armed with this knowledge, you can then focus on the proper online reputation strategy for yourself or your firm.