Time for a Saintly Solicitors website? 30th November, 2011

The courts finally ordered Solicitors From Hell to be taken offline. Hurrah. The sordid secrets of foul-playing law firms everywhere can retreat once again to the comfort of a tightly bolted closet. Or can they? Unfortunately your skeletons may be out and wreaking havoc again soon.

Rick Kordowski’s notorious site may be extinct but similar name and shame operations under other guises, conveniently hosted from non-English jurisdictions are popping up left right and centre. Cowboy Solicitors and the even less imaginative Solicitors From Hell 2 are already threatening to torment UK firms.

Let’s just hope this second generation of solicitor-bashing website has learnt something from its failed predecessor, namely:

• It completely lacked credibility. Everything about the Solicitors From Hell website felt fired by spite, bitterness and revenge rather than a genuine pursuit of justice.

• It was one-sided. With no right to respond for the bad-mouthed firm (other than to pay up to have a story removed).

• It offered the cloak of anonymity. Libellous claims and low blows from rivals or the victims of hopeless cases could easily slip through the net.

The idea of an impartial forum not sponsored or linked in anyway to the Law Society, where people can seek justice for disgraceful advice from a lawyer has its merits. Set up professionally and moderated independently, this kind of facility could help stamp out the bad apples that give the legal profession a bad name. But these sites are not filling us with hope of having such ethics and credibility.

And sadly nobody has started up Solicitors From Heaven or Saintly Solicitors yet. Any volunteers?

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