Reputation Damages &
Repair Programs
Reputation Damages
Defamation and reputation-harm expert witnesses have no standing with the court as to the calculation of, or testifying to, the monetary sum requested for reputational damages. Therefore, as an expert witness, the expert's responsibility is not to determine the reputation damage amount sought by the Plaintiff(s) but, instead, to provide the trier of fact (judge or jury) with sufficient information insight, context and/or perspective to enable an informed evaluation of the reputation damage to determine whether the damage amount requested is fair and equitable based on the extent of the harm the Plaintiff(s) incurred.
Reputation Damage Repair Programs
When the image, reputation and/or brand of a person, business, organization or any type of entity has been damaged through defamation (e.g. libel, slander), misrepresentations or other negative forms of communications - or even by the actions or inactions by others - it often leads to litigation. A lawsuit is filed, normally the litigation process proceeds to a conclusion (e.g. settlement, arbitration, court decision) and should the Plaintiff(s) prevail – generally some form of monetary compensation will be received.
This desirable end to the litigation does not, however, mitigate or remove the damage to the reputation of the Plaintiff(s). This can only be accomplished through a program that includes proactive steps taken to counter, eliminate and/or minimize the negativity which has impacted the Plaintiff(s) while, at the same time, generating positive exposure to help restore the reputation. Such an effort can be called a Reputation Damage Repair Program.
In the communications business, there are several axioms pertaining to reputational damage and harm:
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It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and seconds to destroy it.
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Perception is often more important than reality or perception drives the reality.
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You can never un-ring a bell.
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Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
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You can never fully wipe a slate clean.
In short, when a reputation has been stained by negative communications (and particularly, public exposure) or detrimental actions or inactions of others, even a well planned and executed reputation damage repair program can only limit the damage to a certain degree and it is not a short time effort. It takes time, patience and a concerted and strategic effort – as well as money. The responsibility for funding such a program is the Defendant(s) – “you broke it, you fix it.”
Through his 50-year career in communications, Mr. Fisher has been had extensive experience in crisis communications and representing clients who have had damaged reputations either through their own doing of the words, actions and inactions of others. For this he is recognized nationally by the legal profession and media for creating and implementing programs to mitigate damage and restore negative reputations for clients throughout the U.S. and his firm has won awards for them.
As an expert witness, Mr. Fisher has created Reputation Damage Repair Programs and a budget for them in over 60 cases and testified on them in arbitration hearings as well as trials in both state and federal courts. (Note: In several of his cases the programs have been challenged in motions to exclude his testimony on them and the court has rejected the motion in each one ruling that such a program has merit and is one the trier of fact (i.e. jury) can consider and evaluate.