Did you see the story about law firm Summerfield Browne Solicitors suing a client because he left them a bad review on Trustpilot? Client to Pay Firm £25,000 in Damages for Negative Review. If you’d been on our mailing list, you would have caught it last week. Sign up here.
The firm brought a claim against our poor complainer to the High Court in London, seeking damages and an order forcing Trustpilot to take down the review. Judge Master David Cook ruled in favour of the solicitors and the reviewer has been ordered to pay £25,000 in libel damages. The firm has been absolutely battered on TrustPilot with negative reviews from people who have never used their services to the point they’ve had to stop taking new reviews. Take a look at them for yourself: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.summerfieldbrowne.com
And, if that wasn’t enough. TrustPilot have issued a statement on their client’s page stating they massively disapprove:
We strongly oppose the use of legal action to silence consumer’s freedom of speech This is the first time we’ve seen a business taking such extreme measures against a consumer voicing their genuine opinion.
Trustpilot
Now… Even though here, at BFBC Towers, we vehemently disagree with every part of what the solicitors have done, it does raise a very serious point. As mad as this all is, the real problem here is it sets a precedent and without precedents we would not have our current legal system.
With their current success the law firm could now set about taking all of these negative reviewers to court for the same offence. They should win every case. This is a very bad show indeed and, now the precedent is set, could affect review platforms in a massive way. It won’t but… one to watch. There will definitely be more on this.
