How to Remove Reviews of Private Clinics by Provisional Measures

When visiting a hospital for the first time, many people start by searching the internet for the station name and the name of the medical department (such as orthopedics, dermatology, etc.). Often, they decide which hospital to go to based on online reviews.

You can find hospital reviews on sites like Google Maps, epark, and caloo.

While it’s convenient to be able to quickly find reviews of hospitals and clinics online, there’s also the risk of reputational damage due to negative reviews.

In this article, we will explain how to remove negative reviews about individual clinics, hospitals, and other medical institutions through provisional dispositions.

Why It’s Difficult to Remove Reviews

Generally speaking, it’s not easy to remove reviews, not just those for clinics.

This is because reviews are considered to have a public nature. If reviews could be easily removed at the request of the subject of the review, it would undermine the credibility of the reviews.

Furthermore, even if there are negative reviews, readers understand that these are the personal opinions of the poster.

Therefore, it’s not always the case that the social reputation of the subject will decline due to negative reviews.

Considering these points, compared to cases where defamatory posts are made on social media or bulletin boards, it can be said that the process of removing reviews is relatively difficult.

Request for Deletion from the Site

If there are negative reviews about your clinic, the first step is to request the review site to remove them.

Depending on the terms of use of the site, there may be cases where you can have them removed if they are clearly defamatory or infringe on privacy.

However, the decision is made by the site operator, so there may be cases where deletion is not permitted. In such cases, you will need to file for deletion through legal proceedings.

For information on how to remove reviews from Google Maps (My Business), please refer to the following article.

https://monolith.law/reputation/google-map-reputation-delete-way[ja]

Provisional Disposition for Deletion

What is a Provisional Disposition?

A request for deletion of a review can be made through a procedure called a provisional disposition.

A provisional disposition is a procedure based on the Japanese Civil Preservation Law (民事保全法), where the court makes a temporary decision on whether something is illegal. If it is deemed illegal in the provisional disposition, in most cases, the site operator will comply with the deletion.

Provisional dispositions have the advantage of producing results faster than filing a lawsuit, but it is necessary to properly prepare documents such as evidence.

Also, in order to get a speedy judgment, you may need to gather additional evidence in a short period of time. The help of a lawyer familiar with these procedures is essential to succeed in a provisional disposition.

If you are considering a deletion request by provisional disposition, it is advisable to consult a lawyer as soon as possible.

Process of Deletion Provisional Disposition

The deletion provisional disposition is carried out in the following flow:

• Application for provisional disposition
• Examination
• Payment of security deposit
• Issuance of provisional disposition order
• Execution

Let’s take a closer look at each procedure below.

Application for Provisional Disposition

First, you submit a provisional disposition order application form to the court, which describes the content of the rights to be preserved, and apply for a provisional disposition.

At this time, you also submit evidence, but in the case of a provisional disposition, you only need to “indicate” rather than “prove”, so you submit documents that allow the judge to infer that it is somewhat credible.

Examination

Examination refers to a procedure similar to oral argument in a trial, where the judge and the lawyer directly discuss. In the case of oral argument, it is not uncommon for a gap of 1-2 months, but the examination is held at intervals of 1-2 weeks. Therefore, you need to gather effective indication materials in a short period of time.

Payment of Security Deposit

If the result of the examination is that the infringement of rights is recognized and a security decision is made, you pay a security deposit. This security deposit is allocated to damages if the illegality of the review is denied in a formal trial later and it turns out that there was no need to delete it. This security deposit will be returned if you go through the procedure.

Issuance of Provisional Disposition Order

After paying the security deposit, the court issues a provisional disposition order to delete the comment in question. Even without going through a formal lawsuit procedure, most comments are deleted if this order is issued.

Execution

If the comment in question is not deleted even after receiving the provisional disposition order, you can also take a procedure called provisional seizure execution or compulsory execution, but it is rare to go this far.

For more information on the deletion of slanderous articles by provisional disposition, please refer to the following article.

https://monolith.law/reputation/slander-delete-law[ja]

Cases Where Temporary Deletion Orders Were Granted

A medical institution in the Kanto region demanded that Google, a major internet search company, remove a baseless “review” posted on its map service, “Google Maps,” claiming it damaged their reputation. It was revealed through interviews with related parties by the 14th that the Matsudo branch of the Chiba District Court had issued a temporary injunction decision accepting the lawsuit. The decision was dated the 7th.

Google plans to file an objection.

Nikkei Newspaper dated April 14, 2015[ja]

While the content of the review has not been disclosed, the lawyer for the medical institution stated that it was a “post contrary to the facts.” If it is properly demonstrated that the post is not factual, it seems likely that a temporary deletion order will be issued.

Summary

Negative reviews about hospitals and clinics can be removed through out-of-court negotiations or provisional dispositions. When using a provisional disposition procedure, it is necessary to gather claims and evidence that the court will recognize as “illegal” and properly proceed with the procedure. These procedures require a high level of expertise, so it is important to seek the help of a lawyer who has experience and know-how in this field.

Introduction to Our Firm’s Measures

Monolith Law Office is a legal office with high expertise in both IT, particularly the internet, and law.

In recent years, information related to reputational damage and defamation spread on the internet has caused serious harm. Our firm handles various measures against such damage, from out-of-court negotiations to provisional dispositions.