The Problem
After a federal case wrapped up, the person was ready to move forward. Their search results were not. Court-record aggregators, a wave of local news coverage, and a couple of mugshot-style listings owned the first page of their name. It was costing them job interviews and introductions, and it followed them into every new room before they walked in. The case was closed. Google had not gotten the memo.
The Solution
Removed the court-record aggregators
The legal-listing sites that republish filings, Justia, CourtListener, UniCourt, Trellis, and the rest, respond to direct takedown and de-indexing requests. We filed them and cleared every listing that was eligible.
Suppressed the local news coverage
The local outlets that ran the story will not delete it, and we would never ask anyone to fake the record. Real news does not come down. The only honest way to move it is to outrank it, so we pushed the local coverage off page one with stronger, more relevant results.
Built positive content for Google to chew on
We gave the search engines something more interesting, more accurate, and more current than a years-old court story: a real personal website, a proper biography, and authoritative profile pages across the platforms that actually rank, LinkedIn, professional directories, and reputable bio sites. Substantive, true, and built to climb to the top of the name.
Pushed the old results down, and kept them there
As the new pages gained authority, the aggregator remnants and the local news slid off page one. We monitor it on a recurring schedule, because suppression is something you maintain, not something you do once.
- Justia Removed
- CourtListener Removed
- UniCourt Removed
- Trellis Removed
- PacerMonitor De-indexed
- DocketBird Suppressed
- Casemine Suppressed
- News coverage Suppressed
The court-record aggregators are third-party sites that republish filings, so most respond to direct takedown and de-indexing requests. Coverage on real news outlets cannot be removed, so we outrank it instead. We tell you which bucket each result falls into on day one.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Aggregator listings | Page one | Removed where eligible |
| Local news coverage | Top results | Pushed off page one |
| Positive owned content | None | Owns the top of the name |
| First impression on search | The case | The person today |
Representative results. Down is the win. Client specifics under NDA.
People who have done their time deserve a real shot at what comes next. Clearing the search results is one of the most concrete ways to make a second chance real. We are a proud second-chance employer, and this is why.
Details anonymized to protect client privacy.