By David Madden

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Those on-line reviews of products and services can be very helpful. But if you write one, and it’s negative, you’ll want to be careful, or you could be on the receiving end of a defamation suit.

No longer are professionals and corporations willing to take negative reviews lightly, particularly if they’re not true. So before you go online to complain about that siding job on your house, or something like that, think before you write.

“Stick with statements of fact,” says Princeton attorney Grayson Barber. “Exaggeration does not serve anybody particularly well, but truthful statements are always fine.”

So don’t make your problem seem worse in an effort to get your point across. Also, understand that your opinions are not necessarily fact. Label them appropriately and realize that, on occasion, even an opinion about a professional, poorly worded, can get you into legal trouble.