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Defamation of character. Possible loss of business as a result

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  • Defamation of character. Possible loss of business as a result

    Hi, my girlfriend has been treated at beauty salon which has resulted as huge acne outbreak on her face. As a result, she decided to contact solicitors to make a claim in her name to the beauty salon's insurer. Before she has contacted solicitors, she posted a message on one of the local community's Facebook groups asking for advice. She has not mentioned salon's name, owner's name. She only mentioned device that was used to conduct treatment (and there is more than one venue doing such treatments in the area) and a street name, incorrectly written, though (merry instead of Mary). Recently, my girlfriend received such email from law firm stating as follows: 'We write on behalf of Mrs XXX the director of XXX and we write in relation to the matter as stipulated above.
    At the interview Mrs XXX expressed her innermost anxiety and discontentment resulting from the fact that you made several derogatory statements publicly by means of Facebook media.
    Mrs XXX stated that you underwent a specific treatment carried out by the business on 5/12/2019 and on 22/1/2020, namely, 'device name'*
    You complained the skin on your face was affected as a result.
    Mrs XXX stated that you signed the relevant documentation explaining the treatment procedures which had also highlighted the possible side effects of such treatment. You signed the document on 22/1/2020.
    The director is of the view that the same has had a negative impact on her name and in particular on the business activities which has been placed at disadvantage ever since and from the fact that some of Mrs XXX's customers were turned away from placing orders having seen the posts you publicized.
    Mrs XXX believes that you were malicious in intent when you decided to publicize the posts. The business was explicitly mentioned throughout the libellous/slanderous material and therefore clearly understood by readers.
    Mrs XXX reserves her right to issue proceedings in High Court in relation to this publication. She is aware that the damages for such statements are quite high. For example: In March 2017, an award of £140,000 was made in favour of a claimant who was a recognised refugee and founder of the Islam Channel (Mohamed Ali Harrath v Stand for Peace Ltd and another [2017] EWHC 653 (QB), 30 March 2017). He sued for defamation based on an article posted on the first defendant's website. There had been no defence. The court noted that it would often be appropriate in such cases to start at an award in six figures.*
    In a proximate result of the aforementioned defamation, the business and Mrs XXX have suffered loss and recrimination.
    Mrs XXX asks that you consider what has been stated herein and remove the derogatory statements from the social media as well as publicize official apologies in order to close the matter once and for all.
    The client has now also sought legal advice and was told that in the event of your continuous defamatory actions, they will progress the matter further including through the courts of law to seek damages.
    This is a courtesy letter aimed at promoting mediation and aimed at discouraging parties from instigating court proceedings or court litigation which may be costly, time consuming and stressful.

    NB’ Should you wish to respond then use the email address provided at the header of this letter as a preferable and most convenient method. '


    Is this something we should be worried about considering circumstances mentioned above? I have a feeling that they somehow want us to waive the claim by threating us. Many thanks for your help.*
    Tags: None

  • #2
    I've seen quite a few inept defamation threats in my time but this is a particularly poor effort.

    Is this letter word-for-word how it was written? Who is the 'law firm' that wrote it?

    In terms of the seriousness of the defamation threat I would rank it at just above zero at best.



    *

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi, thanks for the your reply.**

      Yes, it is original writing, the only changes I've done to it before posting here was deleting any names etc.

      'Lawswood International Ltd
      Lawyers and Mediators' - that's how they called themselves.*

      I consider it as a low threat as well, however there is still a chance that the owner of that superb beauty salon will seek her justice in court, and that is my concern. I'm looking for a way to get rid of them without any going anywhere further, what can I reply to them to clearly show, that they have no basis of alleged defamation as no defamation has ever occurred, at least not from us?

      Many thanks for your reply.*

      Comment


      • #4
        Ok thanks.

        Just a quick look around and although Lawswood International describe themselves as a 'law firm' they are not solicitors and aren't registered with either the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or the Law Society.

        According to Companies House Lawswood International Ltd was only formed in late 2018 and their nature of business is stated as 'management consultancy'.


        https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11696669

        It depends what you want to achieve. How important is it to you to keep the Facebook post up? You could just take it down and save yourself the bother of having to potentially deal with more threats (hollow as they are). Alternatively you could just respond rejecting their 'offer' of mediation on the basis that the Facebook post isn't capable of being defamatory due to it being true and factually accurate.

        If it's the latter I could draft something up for you?

        Comment


        • #5
          I have no interest in keeping the facebook post up, however to post official apologies would be a problem, as the lady that conducted the treatment caused a serious acne outbreak on my girlfriend's face and she needs to take really strong antibiotics now to fight against it, hence the claim she made.
          I will definitely reject their offer, as she is genuinely guilty of her unprofessional approach to my girlfriend and result of her work. I do not feel like we have to officially apologise anywhere.

          This letter from 'Lawswood' generally looks more or less like some sort of scam to me, as there was no legal basis mentioned, no evidence, no timeframe specified to delete facebook post and post apologies etc. A draft would be greatly appreciated, as legal language is definitely not my strong point.

          Comment


          • #6
            Oh no, I wasn't suggesting you agree to an apology.

            Yes the letter is really pretty amateurish and clearly written by someone whose first language isn't English and whose Mastermind subject choice wouldn't be defamation law by the looks of things.

            Also you're right that they haven't specified precisely which material they want you to remove (a basic pre-requisite in any defamation complaint), so do you know which post(s) they're talking about?
            *

            Comment


            • #7
              Yes, I do know which posts are they talking about as there has been one and only one occasion when my girlfriend posted something and there was discussion, my girlfriend replied few times to people publicly and privately but she never mentioned any names etc. That's why I consider this letter as an attempt to prevent us from going further with claim, as they may think it will threat us.*

              Comment


              • #8
                Ok I'll post up a draft later on today.

                Comment


                • #9
                  https://lawswoodinternational.com/legal/ - seems to me to be holding itself out to be a solicitor firm - "We are regulated by some of the main authorities in the UK legal system." Neither the firm nor it's only director Marcin Eugeniusz ADAMUSZEK are registered with the SRA. If it was me, I would be asking a) Are you a solicitor firm, if so please provide your SRA number. and b) If you are not so registered, in what capacity to you purport to represent your alleged client.? *

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    They are required to be regulated by the SRA if they undertake reserved activities:
                    *
                    • Exercise a right of audience in chambers hearings in the county court, high court and family court;
                    • Reserved instrument activities (conveyancing);
                    • Probate activities; and
                    • Conduct of litigation.
                    • This firm seems to be engaging in pre-action to litigation work, especially with mention of the High Court. The statement about being regulated by the main authorities, is patently misleading as the main 'authorities' are SRA, Law Society, Cilex, Legal Services Board, MOJ etc.
                    • Only the SRA can regulate a law firm and there does not exist any other 'main authority' to regulate law firms, on that point alone I suspect the SRA will be unhappy.
                    "Although scalar fields are Lorentz scalars, they may transform nontrivially under other symmetries, such as flavour or isospin. For example, the pion is invariant under the restricted Lorentz group, but is an isospin triplet (meaning it transforms like a three component vector under the SU(2) isospin symmetry). Furthermore, it picks up a negative phase under parity inversion, so it transforms nontrivially under the full Lorentz group; such particles are called pseudoscalar rather than scalar. Most mesons are pseudoscalar particles." (finally explained to a captivated Celestine by Professor Brian Cox on Wednesday 27th June 2012 )

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                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Pretending to be a solicitor is a criminal offense. Undertaking work listed in the Legal Services Ac, if not qualified, is also an offence. On the latter, on conviction, a term of imprisonment is the norm.

                      Using threatening or oppressing language to another person is an offense under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

                      There are also, here, potentially offences under the Fraud Act.

                      This 'firm' has some serious explaining to do.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Draft response. I don't think we need to say any more.

                        Dear Sirs

                        I refer to your email of [DATE].

                        Although the purpose and provenance of your email is not entirely clear, I understand that your client is unhappy with certain unspecified statements made on Facebook for which you and/or your client believes to be defamatory.

                        It is unfortunate that you have made no attempt to identify the posts at issue, explain which particular statements you believe to be defamatory and indeed why.

                        Your email wrongly asserts that your client's business was explicitly mentioned in the posts when this is self-evidently not true. Additionally, you will know (or at least should) that truth is an absolute defence to libel, regardless of whether your client has suffered anxiety, discontentment or financial or reputational loss.

                        Given the above, the posts are not capable of being defamatory in any way and should your client be unwise enough to issue proceedings I would defend such a claim with absolute confidence.

                        However as a gesture of goodwill I am prepared remove the posts on the basis that I do so without any admission of liability or acknowledgement that the posts in question are at all defamatory. For the avoidance of doubt I do not and will not agree to issue an apology for the posts either publicly or privately.

                        Finally I note that despite your firm describing itself as a law firm that is regulated by some of the main authorities in the UK legal system, this is in fact untrue and I trust that your client is aware of such.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          It seems, your friend "decided to contact solicitors to make a claim in her name to the beauty salon's insurer." I suggest, therefore, that your friend give the letter from Lawwood to her solicitor, and advise it that Lawwood does not seem to be a solicitor firm.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Hi there again! Thank you very much for your help guys(and ladies?) At the same time when I have created this thread I also asked a question via justanswear. What a solicitor replied is that in case they wanted to go to court, he can't see any chance of winning as no names have been mentioned. I asked him if they are legally entitled to send me such email and that's what he replied :'they could be a limited company which employs solicitors, so potentially yes but my advice is to check with the SRA on 0370 606 2555.' any thoughts? EXC*I've sent the draft you prepared, currently I'm waiting for their response.*

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              There's no reason why anyone can't write to you on behalf of the salon but it's really academic as they don't have a case as far as I can see..

                              Yes you could report them to SRA on the basis that they claim to be a 'law firm' that is ''
                              regulated by some of the main authorities in the UK legal system''
                              when they are clearly not.

                              Let us know if & when you get a response.

                              Comment

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