Law Firm Claims Rival Sucked Up Business By Copying And Hijacking Their Website
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This meme is instructive.
There are a lot of ways to capture that elusive last bit of market share. Some folks just make awesome commercials. Others open up access through a more reasonable fee structure. Others, allegedly, rip off their rival’s websites. There’s a rich tapestry of options.
Illinois firm Motta & Motta is now suing Dolci & Weiland over that third strategy.
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The suit claims Dolci capitalized on Motta’s reputation by using website tags and headers to mislead search engines into believing Motta’s website is Dolci’s website. Dolci is based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.
The suit cites an example of the problem. In September 2016, a search for “Aurora divorce attorney” that included the name of a Motta lawyer generated search results for Dolci, even though no lawyer by the same name appeared on Dolci’s website.
Yeah, but how is this different than Google’s whole business model? If you’re searching for the best lawyer in the area, you’d probably be interested in seeing the second-best. Not to condone this practice — it sounds totally sketchy — but it’s not crazy. Is there anything else? Yep!
The suit alleges that by the summer of 2016, Dolci & Weiland’s website mirrored Motta’s copyrighted design and content and even copied verbatim articles and blogs posted on Motta’s site, along with their hyperlinks and tags. As a result, the suit alleges, the traffic on Motta’s website dropped from nearly 10,000 monthly visitors to less than 4,000, while Dolci & Weiland’s website traffic skyrocketed from a few dozen visitors to more than 15,000.
Well, that’s no good. This would be straight up impersonation and trading on the intellectual energy of a competitor which we still consider “wrong” in this society. And, as law firm websites go, Motta’s is pretty slick.
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The suit also claims Dolci co-opted a Motta employee to send callers seeking a family law or criminal defense attorney to Dolci.
Wait? How is this not the lede? A faithless employee steering business away from their employer is much, much more compelling than a bundle of SEO tricks.
Still, firm websites are serious business and while the traffic they’re talking about in this suit amounts to a rounding error for me, it can be the lifeblood of a small local firm. Lopping off 60 percent of someone’s traffic is still lopping off 60 percent of someone’s traffic.
The case, if you want to catch up on it is Motta & Motta LLC et al. v. Lawyers 777 LLC et al., (1:18-cv-05811).
Law firm seeks to seize rival’s URL; suit alleges ‘hijacked’ website traffic and content [ABA Journal]
Ill. Firm Impersonated Rival Online To Steal Clients: Suit [Law360]
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
