Damage Control, etc.

What is this?  A legalistic quash email issued to a web review site - highly-indexed by Google and other engines - to remove a very negative and wrongful write-up on a client, a professional in San Francisco, owner of multi-million-dollar practice. (The damaging content was deleted upon receipt.)

----- Original Message -----

From: [Consultant]

To: [Adverse Party]

Cc: [Client]

Sent: [Date / Time]

Subject: Delete Wrongful / Copyrighted Content - URGENT

Subject: Listing of and about John Doe / ABC Company

To Whom It May Concern:

In an effort to mitigate further damages, I am writing on behalf of the owner of ABC, John Doe, to in brief address what is now an urgent situation endangering his long-time practice, current livelihood and, potentially, his prospects for the sale of his business and pending retirement.

First, please be advised that this email message is intended to be read ONLY by operators, managers and employees of the website operating under the name Adverse Party, and/or www.***.com. Authorization is NOT granted to share this with any outside individual, organization or entity.

Within past weeks, you entered John Doe and his practice on your review website, www.***.com. A highly negative, very damaging and almost entirely false review was posted and is now indexed by Google.

The owners, management and staff of the Adverse Party website are hereby advised of the following facts:

• For more than 25 years, John Doe has run a profitable and highly reputable practice at the same location in the upscale Generic neighborhood of San Francisco.
• John Doe's very established business trade includes long-time (and long-returning) clients prominent in local and state politics, business and the entertainment industry.
• For more than 10 years John Doe has known the family of the individual who submitted the subject review. In fact, as a favor to the individual's family, John Doe hired the individual (an electrician) to carry out a $50,000 upgrade at one of Mr. Doe's real properties.
• The individual in question has a history of erratic and potentially dangerous behavior. (To wit: The individual once advised John Doe that if a female acquaintance of the individual broke off a relationship, he would do her bodily harm - *fatal* bodily harm.)
• The individual is currently in default on fees of more than $5,000.
• All claims made in the individual's review on the Adverse Party website are either patently false, or greatly and negatively exaggerated.
• The individual's erratic behavior has accelerated in recent months.

Therefore, in consideration of the above relevant facts, and on behalf of John Doe, I am formally requesting that you immediately remove from your website(s) all references to his person, his website and his business, ABC, Inc.

While John Doe has, of course, consulted an attorney, as an alternative course of least resistance for all concerned I recommend that you simply delete the content upon receipt of this message and confirm said action by email reply to me.

While the Adverse Party website is no doubt operated with the best of intentions, in this case it has been misused in the extreme and the results could prove irreparably harmful to John Doe and his business.

Finally, in the event the contents of this CONFIDENTIAL message are disclosed to any individual, entity or company without the express and written consent of the writer, any resulting harassment or harm suffered by John Doe, his staff or his practice shall be deemed damages of an highly egregious nature.

Sincerely,

GenTac, LLC
www.gentac.com

Legal Advisory: All communications herein and attached are proprietary, legally copyrighted and confidential. All rights are reserved and protected.