Law Soc loses patience with Solicitors from Hell website
The Law Society has given Solicitors from Hell owner Rick Kordowski until 2 September to remove his website from the internet otherwise it will take High Court action against him for defamation, harassment and breach of the Data Protection Act.
Kordowski, who has been on the losing side of several High Court defamation cases from solicitors named on his site, said he is committed to his cause.
The Law Society first mooted legal action against Kordowski in May (11 May 2011) after High Court judge Mr Justice Henrique said that both the Law Society and Bar Council should investigate defamation complaints about the website (18 April 2011).
The website claims to give consumers a forum to publicly name and shame solicitors who they feel have provided a poor service.
The legal body has now instructed Brett Wilson to lead action against Kordowski on behalf of the entire legal profession. Its aim is to have the site taken down and stop Kordowski from relaunching it in another guise.
In a letter of claim sent to Kordowski the firm states: “You’ve forced a number of firms and lawyers to resort to costly litigation in order to protect their reputations. The irrecoverable cost of such litigation is prohibitive for many firms and lawyers.”
It continues: “It’s fair to say that the website in its current form serves no legitimate purpose and simply provides individuals who have ’axes to grind’ a means to seek to damage the reputation of lawyers (and other individuals) against whom they hold grudges, and for you to attempt to generate revenue.”
Should Kordowski refuse to take the site down, the letter states, the Law Society will attempt to secure a High Court injunction forcing him to.
In a statement Kordowksi said: “I deny all the allegations set out. I find it outrageous that, on the one hand, The Law Society are 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 £20m per year who in the last six months received 38,155 complaints, of which a massive 90 per cent 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.”
Kordowski has instructed Cloisters’ Jonathan Crystal to represent him on a pro-bono basis.
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Readers' comments (25)
Anonymous | 22-Aug-2011 11:06 pm
Clearly the legal profession is in denial. With record number of complaints in recent years coupled with the fact the majority of the public have no trust or confidence in solicitors, is a compelling evidence against the profession which must be addressed immediately. The self regulation of the profession is failing and the Government may be forced to act as in the case with the toothless PCC.
If the profession cleans up its own house there would be no need for such forums as SFH. Let free speech prevail.
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Mike Adams | 1-Sep-2011 4:44 pm
If the legal profession has nothing to hide, why are so many comments about this website, that are obviously from legal practitioners written anonymously. If you have nothing to hide, leave your name, you cowards.
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Anonymous | 7-Sep-2011 8:53 am
Rick Kordowski's website and others like it are the only
redress ordinary peaple have agaist bent lawyers and judges as the law society, the OJC, and most other bodies of this nature appear to me to dismiss the publics legitemate comlaints on a regular basis. Can the thousands of complaints on Rick Kordowski's website all be made up or false?on the balance of Probabilities doubt it .
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Anonymous | 17-Oct-2011 5:37 pm
I have seen the webpage and I must say that the content is pretty disgusting. I work in a solicitors office which has had to make redundancies! As a result one of the secretary's have posted an untrue listing about a lawyers because she was chosen for redundancy and he had the unfortunate job of telling her. Korwdoski deserves everything he gets!
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Andrew Gill | 21-Nov-2011 8:41 pm
Ricks website is not on its own, check out dorsetpolice.net and check out the links. If there was no truth in these allegations of bad service and corrruption and stitch ups, why are the law society so bothered? As the old saying goes" there aint no smoke without fire. How about firing a few bent solicitors and do the citizens of our once great country a favour? Why doesnt the Law society put it's own house in order by creating a complaints system that is not manned by people with a vested interest?
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