Solicitorsfromhell Owner Unsuccessful In Case Against Law Society Chief

Thu, 27 Oct 2011

Rick Kordowski, the owner of consumer website solicitorsfromhell.co.uk, has lost his slander legal action against the chief executive of the Law Society, Desmond Hudson.

Mr Kordowski had sued Desmond Hudson over a brief conversation between Hudson and Prof John Flood which occurred after the pair took part in a Radio 4 consumer affairs programme at the BBC studios in July this year. In the exchange, the Law Society chief is alleged to have called Kordowski was "a criminal".

In his defence, Mr Hudson claimed that he did not say Kordowski was a criminal but that his methods of collecting payment to remove comments from the dubious solicitors website, which names and shames allegedly underperforming lawyers, amounted to criminal behaviour.

Kordowski, who had originally claimed £1m damages, applied for summary judgment in his favour, a declaration that Hudson's statement was false and defamatory, plus an apology and £10,000.

However at London's high court, Mr Justice Tugendhat said it was not a case for summary judgment as there was a conflict of evidence and it was impossible for him to say that the defence had no real prospect of success.

Tugendhat added that while the allegation of criminality was in principle very serious, the alleged wrong in the present case was of a relatively low level of seriousness.

He concluded that it would not be just to allow the case to proceed as the words complained of were spoken to a single person and there was no evidence of any real or substantial harm to Kordowski.

Kordowski must now pay legal costs amounting to £14,000.
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