The general public was sent a stark reminder that dissatisfaction with a service is not justification for libellous statements online when a customer was hit with a £25,000 damages ruling after posting a libellous Trustpilot review that the law firm Summerfield Browne was “another scam solicitor“.
UPDATE: Trustpilot has issued a response
Master David Cook issued a summary judgment against the defendant Philip Waymouth after striking out the defence of honest opinion after accepting the claimant’s position that the review was presented as a matter of fact without any credible basis and cannot simply say by way of defence “this is my opinion“.
In addition to the damages, the judge also ordered more than £3,000 of costs to be paid as well as issuing an injunction banning the defendant from repeating the allegations. Finally, an order was also made that the review was to be removed from the Trustpilot website under section 13(1)(a) of the Defamation Act 2013. Notwithstanding this, at the date of this post, the negative review still remains available online.
The claimant called on the witness statement of Ms Rhodes, a solicitor employed by the firm, where she confirmed that Summerfield Browne is regulated by the SRA and had been trading in good standing since 2014 without any criticism from the regulator for dishonesty or fraudulent behaviour.
Further to this Ms Rhodes showed evidence that the number of enquiries fell markedly following the posting of the defamatory review which the judge accepted it had a “clear tendency to put people off dealing with the Claimant firm“.
This particular case draws a parallel to the raft of defamatory reviews on the now-defunct website “Solicitors From Hell”. Disgruntled former clients made a series of complaints with little or no moderation from the website to verify those statements with reviews often appearing in online searches. The owner of the website Rick Kordowski was eventually made the subject of a bankruptcy order in September 2011 after owing more than £150,000 having being sued for libel on at least 16 occasions.
Summerfield Brown had been approached by Mr Waymouth to assist in a dispute about enforcement of a court order. The defendant, who now resides in Sweden, signed the claimant’s terms and conditions who then provided advice for the fixed fee of £200.
The defendant was dissatisfied with the service yet never fully articulated what the reason for this was and then failed to engage the firm under their dispute resolution procedure. Instead, the review was posted on Trustpilot which included statements such as “a total waste of money, another scam solicitor” and “a lack of understanding for the situation and the law“.
Mr Waymouth was unrepresented and filed a defence repeating the claims that Summerfield Brown was fraudulent, stating that “I am disappointed that the High Court has given this self-serving solicitor a hearing when the prerequisite of pre-court negotiating has not been satisfied and suggest the case dismissed immediately before costs are incurred.“
In addition, the defendant questioned the jurisdiction of the court saying “I have already made it perfectly clear that this case should never be heard in court and I will not be giving it any credence or legitimacy by attending” and in effect refusing to take any further part in the case.
Master Cook stated that Mr Waymouth had indicated an intention to defend the claim and therefore had accepted the jurisdiction of the court. The judge then struck out the defence of truth and accepted the claimant’s argument that there was no prospect the review could be established as being in the public interest.
Summerfield Browne Ltd v Philip James Waymouth
Neutral citation: [2021] EWHC 85 (QB)
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Read more on the Trustpilot Review story and social media defamation
Summerfield Browne v Waymouth Trustpilot ruling fallout continues
Defamation on Social Media and Online: A Complete Guide