Legal-threat response plan
A supplement brand will threaten us over a low grade. Not maybe — eventually. We're writing the response now, in public, so the decision was made when nobody was under pressure. When the letter arrives, this is what happens.
What we commit to, in advance
- We publish the threat in full, calmly, with the evidence beside it, on the day it arrives. No exceptions.
- We do not move the grade in response to the threat. A grade moves when new evidence moves it, never when new pressure moves it. If the threat contains new evidence, that evidence enters the pipeline like any other — cited, adjudicated by named reviewers under their real names, and if it changes anything, the change is logged in corrections with a public explanation.
- We do not delete the low grade, tombstone it, or quietly downgrade its ranking in search. The claim stays exactly where it was.
- We do not settle for a private retraction. Any resolution is public, on corrections, with the reviewer signed by name.
- We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or any commercial relationship as part of any resolution. Ever. See independence.
Draft public statement (fill in the {blanks} on the day)
On {DATE}, we received a {legal-threat-type} from {brand} regarding our Grade {grade} for {intervention} and {outcome}. We are publishing the letter in full: {link}.
We've reviewed the letter's claims. {Either: "It contains no new evidence we hadn't already considered, and the grade stands." OR: "It cites {N} studies we had not seen. Those studies are now in our pipeline; a re-review by {reviewer} will publish by {date}, cited and adjudicated in public."}
Substrate sells no supplements and takes no supplement money. That is the entire reason we can say what we say. It is also, structurally, why this letter arrived.
Operational preparation (what we've done in advance)
- Media-liability insurance is a stated requirement for the founder to carry before the practitioner tier scales into clinical settings.
- Anti-SLAPP jurisdictions understood; Substrate's public content policy is aligned with the strongest anti-SLAPP posture available.
- Every claim carries a receipt (see /receipt) with reviewer identity, evidence citations, and hash-chained integrity — the record we'd point at, unchanged, from the day of any threat.
Why we publish this now, before a threat exists
A commitment made under pressure is worth nothing. A commitment made in public, in advance, on the record, is what independence looks like. When (not if) the first letter arrives, the value of the response is the calmness of the delivery — and calmness is only possible when the decision predates the pressure.