One-star ratings on Google are deemed not defamatory and why that’s a problem It's crucial to have a solid review management strategy in place and for local SEOs to manage SMB expectations around review removal. Joy Hawkins on April 16, 2021 at 11:57 am More Eric Goldman, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law recently wrote about a case in Michigan where a law firm had a 1-star review left that had no text in it. [We also covered it in our daily brief a while back.] The identity of the user is unknown and the law firm claimed that the user posted the wordless one-star review to their Google My Business listing with the intent to cause damage to their reputation or profession and to dissuade potential clients from doing business with them.