Last chance for Solicitors from Hell

According to reports in The Lawyer, the Law Society has warned the owner of Solicitors from Hell (a website claiming to give consumers a forum in which to publicly name and shame solicitors who they feel have provided a poor service) to remove the website from the Internet or face High Court action. The Law Society has given Rick Kordowski until 2 September 2011 to remove the site or face legal action for defamation, harassment and breach of the Data Protection Act.

As reported in the Law Gazette, the letter of claim sent to Kordowski by Brett Wilson (the society’s solicitors) said that the site serves "no legitimate purpose" and that it was a "magnet for the vexatious and bitter whose complaints would not stand up to scrutiny in any impartial tribunal or forum".

Kordowski has said he is committed to maintaining the website, despite already losing several High Court cases brought by solicitors it had named. In a statement, Kordowski said: “I deny all the allegations set out. I find it outrageous that, on the one hand, the Law Society is taking action against me on behalf of all 150,000 solicitors in England and Wales; and on the other hand, they’re funding the legal ombudsman to the tune of over £20 million per year who in the last six months received 38,155 complaints, of which a massive 90% were rejected. Does the profession really have that much to hide? These costs are ultimately paid for by solicitors in the form of practising certificates. Yet the Law Society totally ’rejected’ my suggestion to work together to expose wrongdoing, where it exists, for the sake of decent lawyers in the profession."