Communication Tools
Class Action in the Information Age
The plaintiffs bar is an Internet generation ahead of the companies it targets when it comes to class action litigation.
While defendants languish in the graveyard that is traditional media – or worse yet, go dark for the duration of a class action – plaintiff lawyers utilize pay-per-click campaigns to troll for clients. They maintain frequently updated blogs to saturate the media, consumers, and potential judges and jurors with their messages. And, most important, they dominate the search engines to ensure that they tell their story before companies under fire can tell theirs.
To catch up, companies caught in the class action crosshairs must first realize that they have these same tools at their disposal, make a real commitment to using them, and master the tactics that can level the online playing field.
Boards can take a particular leadership position by demanding greater Internet awareness as it relates to litigation, and by being aware themselves of the most crucial digital action points, taken the plaintiffs bar’s own playbook. Among the top-priority considerations:
Don’t let the plaintiffs bar own your “terms.” Through an increasingly familiar process called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), companies ensure that their messages compete with those of the plaintiffs bar when Google and other search engines rank their websites based on embedded keywords and phrases. So, to show up on in the top ten rather than the top thousand…
- Create a list of all the keyword terms relevant to the impending litigation.
- Use these terms liberally on your site’s URL and text.
- Regularly update your site and identify ways to link to and from other high-authority and frequently visited sites.
Beat the plaintiffs bar to the punch. Creating “dark sites” – or unpublished websites with placeholder content that can go live the moment they are needed – will allow you to match the speed with which the plaintiffs bar spins every significant development in the case. Anticipate the likely scenarios and prepare content for each so that your messages are there waiting when the time comes to go live.
Consider your own blog. A blog isn’t a short-term fix; it’s a long-term investment – one that ensures that when class action litigation does occur, you’ll be able to quickly and effectively start shaping the story, and thus, public perceptions.
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