In several previous blog posts,
we have mentioned obtaining court
orders with the aim of getting links to harmful content, such as Ripoff Report
posts,
de-indexed from search engines.
What we have not written about,
to date,
is how to use a court order to
get links removed from Google.
In short, this entails using Google’s
Legal Removal Requests page. The Legal Removal Requests page is easy to use,
but Google will not entertain just any
removal requests. With a valid court order, however, while not legally
required, Google typically honors them
and de-indexes the relevant links.
For background, when disparaging
content shows up online,
the subject of that harmful content generally wants it removed from the
internet. In many cases,
the solution (or at least part of it)
entails obtaining a court
order and presenting it to t
he search engines in order to get the listings removed from the respective
search results.
Even in the case of,
say Ripoff Report,
which does not remove
any posts, getting a harmful
URL removed from search can be quite effective.
Considering the importance
of online reputations today,
a business can ill afford to
have defamatory content among its top search results. Prospective
customers (and other parties such as investors)
will see that and likely find
somewhere else to take their business.
Factor in both
the amount of people
that Google a company before conducting business with them, plus the fact that
Google holds greater
than 67 percent of the
search market share in
the United States, and it
is easy to see why a
defamed business (or person)
would want to get links to harmful
content removed from Google.
Thus, once an attorney
is able to obtain a signed court order,
he or she should go to the Legal
Removal Requests page and
select “Submit a Legal
Request” and then click “Web Search.”
From there, on the Removing Content
From Google page, they attorney will
want to choose the bottom option,
“I have a legal issue that is not
mentioned above.”
The attorney will be given five options,
and the second one from the top reads: “
I have a court order declaring certain
content unlawful (e.g. pursuant to a
form that attorneys can fill out and
submit for Google’s review of “court o
rders against third parties who have
posted allegedly unlawful content.”
Under “Location of the allegedly
infringing material,” the attorney
should paste in the URLs
pertaining to the defamatory
content, one per line. It
is also necessary that the
attorney explain which section
of the court order mandates the
removal of those URLs (even if
it is fairly obvious). Finally,
he or she must also upload a copy
of the signed court order and then click “Submit.”
From there, and that is
assuming the form has
been properly filled
out, Google will send
an automated confirmation
email from
removals@google.com.
This email explains that the legal
request is in Google’s “queue” and the
legal team will “get to it as quickly as
our workload permits.”
At whatever point Google processes
the request (likely anywhere from
a couple days to a few weeks),
Google may respond with questions
or requests for more information,
such as – when dealing with a default
judgment — clarification of how service
was made in the case (to demonstrate how the
defendant(s) had an opportunity to learn
they were facing legal action). Ideally,
Google will simply reply that it has removed
the requested URLs from Google.com. It may
take a day or two for the removal(s) to be reflected
in the actual search results.
When a URL has
been removed and
the relevant Google
search is run, the
following message will
be seen at the bottom
of the search results page:
“In response to a legal request
submitted to Google, we have removed
1 result(s) from this page.