Solicitorsfromhell owner in second High Court libel action

Thursday 29 July 2010 by James Dean

The owner of website solicitorsfromhell.co.uk is facing a second High Court libel action, the Gazette has learned.

The news comes as it emerged that website owner Rick Kordowski has been invited by the BBC to assist with an investigation into alleged sharp practices by solicitors as part of its Rip-Off Britain TV series.

London firm Bhatt Murphy is seeking a High Court injunction against Kordowski to restrain him from publishing further material that it alleges is defamatory of one of its lawyers. It is also seeking more than £25,000 in compensation. Kordowski is defending the claim.

The first High Court claim against him, launched by Eason Law principal Scott Eason and unrelated to this second claim, settled earlier this year.

The particulars of Bhatt Murphy’s claim, seen by the Gazette, were filed in the High Court on 14 July by Bhatt Murphy partner Simon Creighton. Creighton is not the subject of the allegations on the website.

Creighton said: ‘The firm has never received a complaint that corresponds in any way with the allegations made in the article [published by solicitorsfromhell] and to the best of our knowledge its anonymous author was never a client of this firm. The motive behind publishing this article remains a mystery to us. The only action that the website offers is to remove the article if a fee is paid. Faced with that situation, there was no proper alternative other than to commence legal proceedings.’

The claim document says the solicitorsfromhell article damaged the Bhatt Murphy solicitor’s reputation and caused ‘great embarrassment and distress’.

In his defence, Kordowski says that the claimant missed a ‘golden opportunity’ to mitigate their perceived damage by paying a ‘comparatively small fee’ to him. He said he rejects website postings if he considers them unmeritorious.

The claim document goes on to state that the website, ‘while purporting to serve the public interest by allowing members of the public to identify incompetent solicitors, is an unscrupulous money-making scheme for the defendant which operates in a manner akin to extortion’. Kordowski rejects this claim in his defence and says: ‘As the defendant has no money or assets, [deletion] fees go towards the upkeep of the website.’

Meanwhile, Kordowski said he is assisting the BBC with a forthcoming expose of ‘the rip-offs that are enraging the nation’, including some in the area of law. He has posted a request for members of the public to contact the BBC with their grievances about solicitors on his website. The BBC confirmed that it has spoken to a number of people who responded to the request. The BBC programme is unrelated to Bhatt Murphy’s proceedings.

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Comments

Regulated law trade

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 29/07/2010 - 11:35.

Mr Kowdowski should be aware that the process of legal services reform is turning what was once a respected legal profession into a law trade. It is not surprising that complaints against solicitors will rise as profit and survival will become the prime motivation of solicitors (the same motiviation as people who work in unregulated business in general - see banking trade) instead of providing a professional service. Nevertheless the law trade is regulated and a solicitor is still bound by professional rules and could find himself in front of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. It would appear from the legal press that the Solicitors Regulation Authority have been quite successful in striking off solicitors who are not fit to practice.

Surely Mr Kowdowski is aware that there are good and bad people (or a mixture of the two) in all walks of life. Human nature is complex. Does he know the complainants? It is possible that some of the entries on his site are near to the truth but how does he know? A complaint could be made from a genuine person, a malicious person, a mistaken person, a person who is intelligent, a person who is not very intelligent, an unbalanced person or just someone who hates solicitors... or even a politically motivated person who is trying to undermine the UK by bringing the english legal profession into disrepute.

Is it fair to rubbish a firm of solicitors that could consist of 100s solicitors just because a named solicitor who works at the firm is considered to be a bad solicitor by Mr Kordowski?

This is a democratic society, Mr Kordowski is entitled to exercise his freedom of expression subject to the law, but I would hope that he would reconsider what he is doing if he is an honourable man.

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The law has been turned into

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 29/07/2010 - 12:41.

The law has been turned into a legal trade. It is not surprising that complaints against solicitors have increased as profit and personal survival (like in unregulated business - see banking) replace professionalism. Nevertheless should a website criticising solicitors run by the public be acting as judge and jury about allegations that have not been tested by a recognised authority such as the SRA? A named firm is tarnished just because there is an allegation of bad practice agianst one solicitor at that firm.