Before you ring a solicitor about that review, check whether Google will simply take it down.
A defamatory review looks like a legal matter, and sometimes it genuinely is one. But the legal route in NSW is slow, costly, and very public. The bills start before anything actually moves, the review sits there the entire time you wait, and if the account is anonymous, which a lot of fake ones are, you could spend months just working out who to sue in the first place.
There’s a quieter option most owners never properly try. Google can remove content that breaks its own rules, on its own authority, without a court and usually within a few weeks. Whether something is legally defamatory is a real legal question with genuine complexity. Whether it breaches Google’s policy is a separate, much simpler test, with a much faster answer.
Erase Trax assess your review against Google’s actual rules, build a proper case around it, and file it correctly.
Send us the review for a free assessment.
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The first thing to work out is whether this is a policy issue or a purely legal one. Plenty of unfair reviews break no rule at all, and you deserve to know that honestly before spending anything chasing something that was never going anywhere.
If there's a real case, you get the specific rule, not a vague "we'll look into it and get back to you."
Account age, posting history, and every other listing that account has rated. All public, all relevant, and you're welcome to check it yourself.
Strong, arguable, or hopeless. We'll tell you which one, in writing, because a weak case dressed up as strong just wastes months you won't get back.
A hasty reply can make things worse. We'll flag anything obvious, though for genuine legal exposure, a solicitor is the right person to speak to, not us.
The assessment is yours to keep whether you engage us afterward or not.
A look at genuine cases, showing what a rating looked like before and after the fake and unfair reviews came down.
Practitioners can't answer a clinical accusation publicly without breaching confidentiality, leaving the review standing unanswered. This is the most common version of this problem we see across NSW.
High-value treatments, strong feelings on both sides, and occasionally a review describing a procedure that never actually happened at the clinic.
A review naming your business for defective work on a job you never touched, sometimes clearly meant for a different, similarly named company.
Dense competition everywhere, and occasional bursts of one-star ratings from accounts with no posting history at all.
Reviews from the other party in a matter, or from someone who was genuinely never your client.
A single unfounded allegation sitting publicly does damage no reply from you could ever undo on its own.
Reviews about outcomes the agency never actually controlled, occasionally planted by a competitor chasing an edge.
With a small overall review count, one planted negative post shifts your average far more than it should.
A policy-based removal typically resolves within weeks. Legal proceedings in NSW don't move on that timescale, and the review stays fully visible the whole time.
Legal action costs money from the first letter, with no guarantee of recovering any of it. A policy-based case with us costs nothing unless the review actually comes down.
If you don't know who posted a fake review, going after them legally gets expensive fast. Google doesn't need the poster identified to enforce its own rules.
A legal fight over a bad review can draw far more attention to it than it ever had sitting quietly on its own. A successful removal ends things quietly.
Removable: Posts From People Who Were Never Customers
Fabricated accounts, competitor posts, or reviews left on the wrong business by mistake.
Clusters of negative ratings from brand-new accounts with no history, all landing in a tight window.
Links, phone numbers, promotional text, or identical copy across several unrelated listings.
Named staff, personal attacks, discriminatory language, or threats.
Complaints clearly meant for a different business, or commentary with no genuine connection to anything you actually did.
Even a harsh, one-sided account of a real experience stays up. That's exactly where the line sits, and nobody can move it.
Being factually incorrect isn't a policy breach by itself. If a review is false and genuinely damaging, that's where a solicitor is the right call, not us.
"I've never used this business, but I would not recommend them to anyone in NSW. Stay away from this company."
"Don't use this business. I offer better services at a lower price. Check my profile and contact me directly for a quote."
"This business is dishonest and should be avoided. I've never been a customer, but people across NSW should stay away from them."
We test the review against Google's published rules and examine the account behind it, then tell you plainly whether there's a real case.
The case gets written to name the specific breach and carry solid evidence, including account analysis and whatever your own records confirm about the absence of a matching customer.
It's filed through Google's official channels only, and followed up on properly. If the first response is a rejection, we reassess and escalate rather than let it drop.
No account access, no credentials. A public profile URL is enough to start.
Every flagged review categorised clearly, with reasoning behind each one. You're free to stop here at no cost.
Nothing goes to Google without your sign-off, and you can pull any case at any point.
Submission dates, Google's responses, and any escalation logged clearly, without having to ask us.
For practitioners especially, this is really the whole point. Prospective clients see your actual work, not an allegation you were never able to answer.
A successful removal takes the unfair rating out of the calculation for good. Burying it under new reviews only dilutes it, it never actually removes it.
Review signals feed directly into search results, so a corrected rating tends to lift visibility as well as perception.
Even a no would have told you exactly where you stand, at zero cost.
We assess reviews against Google's rules, nothing more. Questions about defamation, concerns notices, or damages belong with a qualified NSW solicitor, and we'll say so rather than guess outside our expertise.
No outreach, no pressure, no attempt to get anyone to withdraw a post. Every case goes to Google, never to people.
We report what the account shows publicly, nothing more. We don't unmask anyone, and we'd be wary of any service that claims it can.
No retainer, no monthly fee. Payment is per successful removal only, and failed cases cost nothing.
Google's own reporting system, every time. The tactics that get listings suspended are exactly what we avoid.
Some reviews really are a legal problem, not a policy one. Hearing that clearly and early is worth more than a case that was never going to succeed.
Send us the review. You’ll get the policy assessment, the full account analysis, and a straight answer on whether it’s genuinely winnable. Free, in writing, with nothing owed either way.
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