Man ordered to pay £25,000 found in damages after publishing libellous Trustpilot review
10 February, 2021
A man has been ordered to pay £25,000 ($34,312) in damages after publishing a libellous review of solicitors’ strong Summerfield Browne.
Phillip James Waymouth posted undesirable responses on Trustpilot, describing the firm as a good “scam solicitor” and a good “total waste of money”. His complaint stemmed from unhappiness at legal services he had received in 2019 in regards to a legal matter.
Summerfield Browne issued court actions against Mr Waymouth after studying the post, stating that it was untrue and defamatory.
The firm said the number of business enquiries it received had fallen, dropping from about 60 per week to 40. This, they claimed, showed the assessment had a deleterious influence on its reputation.
The court also heard that he previously wanted to delete the review in trade for a £200 refund for the legal advice he had received.
In a ruling at London’s High Court, a judge sided with the law organization and agreed that the post had unfairly harmed its reputation. He purchased Mr Waymouth to spend £25,000 in damages that were sought by the plaintiff.
Mr Waymouth had not engaged with Summerfield Browne’s complaints division before posting the analysis, the court heard. He also didn't attend the courtroom proceedings at the Great Court and didn't give a legal representative.
Judge Master David Make said it was "beyond any dispute" what in the analysis "had a clear inclination to place people off coping with the claimant firm".
“It is difficult to summarize that the defendant had any other purpose at heart when posting his analysis,” he added. In addition, Mr Waymouth had "hardly ever totally articulated" why he was unhappy with Summerfield Browne's do the job, the judge said.
Judge Make said it had been “not in the general public interest for misleading and inaccurate facts of the kind to come to be published on a client review web site”.
He ordered that Trustpilot take down the offending post as a result of defendant’s insufficient co-operation, and granted an injunction protecting against Mr Waymouth from posting a similar review later on.
Since the ruling, Summerfield Browne has received dozens of negative reviews on Trustpilot.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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