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DEFAMATION, LIBEL AND SLANDER
Expert Witness Services
Navigating Reputational Harm: Repairing, Measuring & Metrics
Reputations are vulnerable to instantaneous destruction in today’s digital age, yet the repair process is intricate and often resource-intensive.
With that in mind, we are pleased to present the white paper, “Navigating Reputational Harm: A Deep Dive into Repairing, Measuring, Metrics, and Legal Implications of Reputational Harm in the Internet Age” by Eric W. Rose and attorney James F. Haggerty, which delves into the complexities of repairing, measuring, and mitigating reputational harm in the internet era, particularly in areas focusing on defamation and other reputational attacks.
The emergence of the internet and social media has increasingly led to the proliferation of false and defamatory content, challenging traditional response methods and intensifying reputational damage. The authors highlight these challenges, along with the increasing role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in perpetuating reputational harm, as algorithms learn from and amplify misleading information. They discuss the challenges of combating negative content in an era of permanent and ubiquitous information.
The authors outline various tools and techniques for assessing reputational damage, including social media monitoring platforms and sentiment analysis tools. They detail the importance of audience and publicity values in quantifying the impact of media coverage and provide insights into audience reach and the financial cost of reputational harm. The authors also explore how traditional journalistic practices have eroded in the digital age, complicating the practical aspects of defamation law and litigation.
The white paper is a primer for public relations professionals, organizations, and legal professionals grappling with reputational issues in the digital age. It highlights the complexities of managing a reputation online and emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach that combines measurement, legal strategies, and effective repair tactics.
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Our court-qualified expert witness testifies on behalf of major corporations in defamation, libel and slander cases across the country. Our experts are qualified to provide expert testimony on issues including, but not limited to, damaged images, reputational harm prevention and repair, and crisis communications. We are also defamation damage calculations experts. We have served as an expert witness for both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of defamation/reputation cases throughout the United States. Despite the location and the type/nature of the defamation involved, there was one constant – the vital need for an expert witness for both the plaintiff and defendant.
Court cases involving defamation may occur over statements that have hindered a business, an individual’s career, reputation or general well-being. Increasingly, cases involve false statements on the internet or social media posts. While the lawyers prove that the statement and/or writing made are false, one of the challenges is determining the extent of damages that defamation has caused. EKA’s expert witness has years of experience testifying on the stand and brings meticulous preparation to every appearance. EKA has assisted attorneys to recover damages and ensure that their client’s reputation is repaired as much as possible given that false material is very difficult to remove from the internet. EKA has developed online reputation management campaigns to help victims repair the harm caused by defamation.
Slander and libel ruins lives
Very few people that serve on juries have the knowledge, background or understanding of the effect defamatory communication has on others. A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth ever gets out. We understand:
- The principles of negative communications
- The many ways false and negative information is spread
- Human nature and psychology and how information is absorbed and interpreted
- Strategies available for victims of defamation, slander & libel to take to counter the false information and the costs involved to repair the damage.
EXAMPLES OF OUR EXPERT WITNESS WORK
FOR FASTEST RESPONSE, PLEASE CALL (805) 624-0572
The bulk of our expert witness work has been in the areas of libel, slander, defamation, reputation repair, and damage to a individuals future professional career.
- We provided expert testimony in a precedent-setting case involving Courtney Love, who was sued for posting a tweet about her former attorney. This was the first trial in the United States involving allegations of defamation on Twitter. We provided expert witness testimony regarding crisis communication, media relations, and reputation management. After an eight-day trial, a jury decided that Courtney Love should not be held liable for a tweet directed at her former attorney Rhonda Holmes.
- We were an expert witness for a well-known doctor who sued his patient for defamatory comments on social media websites. We provided an expert opinion and analysis on how it is nearly impossible to remove defamation from the internet. Our analysis included a detailed overview of the steps necessary for content removal and the cost of rehabilitating the doctor’s good name and businesses. We examined the impact and dissemination of the comments on social media websites and how those comments harmed the doctor’s professional reputation and economic condition. Our client won the case and was awarded the amount we recommended for rebuilding the doctor’s reputation.
- A doctor sued two insurance companies after his patients began informing him that their pharmacists would no longer fill their prescriptions. Over six months the patients were being told (falsely) by the defendants that the doctor was a sanctioned provider by the federal government and unable to write prescriptions. We were retained to address the effects of the dissemination of false information to the doctor’s professional reputation, to determine the appropriate standard of care/crisis response that should have taken place, and to provide an overview of action necessary to recover the doctor’s good professional reputation. A three-judge binding arbitration panel heard the case and they awarded our client $1.5 million dollars.
- Two doctors sued a third doctor for damage to their reputation after the third doctor allegedly spread false and defamatory information to employees, patients, the community and the media. We were retained to address the effects of disseminating false information on the doctor’s and practice’s professional reputations. We were asked to provide analysis and offer an opinion on the potential impact and damage to their image, examine the impacts to the practice as a result of the alleged acts and offer our expert opinion on the steps the plaintiffs should consider taking to recover their good professional reputation and lost business. The case is pending.
- Two people were on a second story deck with a concrete patio below when without warning the deck gave way underneath, and they fell to the concrete patio below, where they suffered serious injuries. The injured people sued the manufacturer, the contractor, the wholesaler and the distributor. We were retained by the distributor to provide analysis and offer an opinion regarding corporate communication, crisis management, the recall instructions. We offered our views on the reports of the other experts who attempted to shift the blame to the distributor. The day after our deposition, the case settled, and our client did not have to pay any damages.
- An insurance agency sued another insurance agency and the CEO for defamation and tortious interference based on false and defamatory statements which defendants communicated to the plaintiff’s current and potential customers, with the intent of trying to convince those customers not to do business with the company. The defendants allegedly repeatedly and intentionally communicated false statements to customers regarding the plaintiff’s business practices and the CEO publicly asserted false and defamatory communications with intent to harm our client’s reputation and interfere with current contractual and customer relationships. We were asked to provide analysis and offered an opinion on the potential impact and damage to our client’s reputation. We were also asked to offer an opinion regarding the steps our client should take in my opinion to repair the harm to its good professional reputation and to offer our professional opinion on damages associated with repairing the damage to our client’s professional reputation caused by the dissemination of the allegedly defamatory information. The Federal Court case settled in May 2018.
- Our client and a female employee were celebrating at a company dinner. After the dinner, the female employee became intoxicated and exceedingly flirtatious with several males. Following dinner, the group broke up and our client eventually retired to his room. The female employee perhaps embarrassed by her drunken displays and flirtatious behavior, concocted a false and defamatory story that evening about our client coming onto and propositioning her. She then spread malicious lies within the company about our client for the explicit purpose of retaliating and wrecking his reputation. We were asked to provide an analysis regarding the reputational harm to our client and to address the effects of disseminating false information. After a jury trial, our client was awarded $150,000.