Hotel issued 6 page threatening letter following poor review

[Itsalongwayto]

following on from this post www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4018141-Hotel-threatening-to-sue-us-for-bad-review

The owner has now got his solicitor to issue a six page threatening letter. I don't think I have said or done anything wrong except write a review that he doesn't like and publicise the dangers of his hotel. His initial letter was blackmailing me NOT to write a negative review, threatening 'further action' including contacting my place of work and professional body. I have evidence of all the negative comments i made, except the smell. Advice please.

Treadcarefully1 - a solicitor can not 'put charges' on your house. That man is taking the piss out of you. Ignore him.

Now this is when 'crowd funding' really is worth it.

How can Trip Advisor exist if people cannot leave honest reviews?

Also, there clearly is some legal issue here, as the other thread is full of deletions now.

Strange leap of logic. The other thread has 22 deletions in 571 posts. I wouldn't see that as any indication of a legal issue.

@ OhCaptain no I am a regular but have name changed as I don’t want to be pursued any further if I post too much under my regular name.

For those saying that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, he is threatening action over the helpful marks on the review, and in that case he really does have a potential case.

Thing is, these helpful marks weren’t gained by people going on to the review with a view to staying there, they have been put there by posters going on to a thread by the OP with a view to making sure others don’t want to go there.

That’s not the OP’s fault. She posted a thread asking for advice, but MN’ers have gone all out to identify the bloke, post the review, go on to the review to mark it as helpful. People might disagree with me but this really is shaky ground in terms of the potential for him to bring a case.

Interesting! Will “PM” you.

There used to be a site called ''Solicitors from Hell'' - its main page had flames on it! It was a huge site about terrible solicitors - even large London firms - peoples bad experiences. Presumably the stories were true. The site was eventually forced to be taken down by the Law Society in 2011.

OP I understand that this is actually a really unnerving situation for you. Let's face it, no matter how amateurish the letter may be, nobody wants to receive a threatening letter from a solicitor in the post. Especially when you can't explicitly confirm the validity of it, or if there are any real grounds for litigation on the hotel owners part.

However, ANY decent (or even not decent for that matter) will tell you that defamation claims are notoriously difficult to prove. Firstly, there are a number of defences to defamation - most notably being truth. Is it down to you to prove that the statements presented are both truthful and factual based on your experiences. The burden of proof is on you to prove that. Furthermore, in the absence of truth, you can rely on the defence of honest opinion. If you can show that the statements presented were that of an honest opinion on your part, and that any reasonable (feel free to reach your own conclusion of what you find reasonable!) could have also reached the same opinion based on the facts you present, then you are protected against a claim for defamation based on that. Quite frankly, a quick scan of the tripadvisor reviews shows that the opinion formed by you, is shared by a number of others having visited the hotel.

The amount of money it will cost to being a defamation claim against you is so far beyond the realms of possibility for a man who can't even afford to fix a crumbling roof in his hotel, that any concerns you have are misplaced.

Excuse the typos, was trying to send it quickly while preparing DS's breakfast!

Contact Matt Allwright on the bbc if you are in the uk...? He loves things like this. Alternatively wipe marmite on it and send
back to tell / show him wHat you think of his letter utter shite

@Treadcarefully1

@ OhCaptain no I am a regular but have name changed as I don’t want to be pursued any further if I post too much under my regular name.

For those saying that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, he is threatening action over the helpful marks on the review, and in that case he really does have a potential case.

Thing is, these helpful marks weren’t gained by people going on to the review with a view to staying there, they have been put there by posters going on to a thread by the OP with a view to making sure others don’t want to go there.

That’s not the OP’s fault. She posted a thread asking for advice, but MN’ers have gone all out to identify the bloke, post the review, go on to the review to mark it as helpful. People might disagree with me but this really is shaky ground in terms of the potential for him to bring a case.

This is helpful in some ways, but I'm not sure I agree entirely. In order to claim for damages in a situation like that, it is down to the hotel owner to prove explicitly that the OP has been the cause of lost earnings to the hotel based explicitly on that review. In order to do that, the owner has to first prove defamation. If he's not able to prove defamation then you cannot claim for damages due to lost earnings, as the OP is protected by a failure to prove that she essentially did anything wrong or untruthful by posting her review. As per my previous post, that will be almost impossible. In short, it's neither here nor there whether the owner truly did lose earnings and patrons based on her review, as the law protects citizens and allows them the freedom of speech based on truth or on an honest opinion that any other reasonable person would've also formed.

I don’t understand why he feels all of this (which it would very much seem like he has done before) is easier than providing good customer service.

@Treadcarefully1 that solicitor sounds like he’s harassing you and threatening you.

I agree with @Sh1tsandgiggl3s to send it back, but with sheets of toilet paper so he can go wipe his arse on it...

@Treadcarefully1 Do you know WHY it hasn't gone to court?

My guess from your description is that it couldn't and if it did, he would lose. So why are you letting it bother you?

You shouldn't be scared of a solicitor if they have no case? Just because he is a solicitor? Crazy. There are dickheads in every profession but it doesn't mean their profession can harm you.

@ Longdistance yes, I believe he is. But I can’t afford to pursue it. Truth is I think that he probably does it to everyone. His google reviews are really quite shocking yet he has had quite a positive profile in the media recently.

It bothers me because when you receive threatening letters and because he’s a solicitor the law is slightly different e.g. they don’t have to prove loss of earnings to make a case (according to the solicitor I spoke to) you just don’t know where it will end.

I have reached the point now where if it does go any further I will simply say no more and if he wants to go to court then he can, but I think the press would almost certainly get wind of it, and for reasons I can’t go into it would put a very different slant on the person he claims to be. But I’d rather he just went away TBH.

@Treadcarefully1 don't know who you have been talking to but frankly soundsike tosh.
The law on defamationwas tightened a whike ago and it has to be very 'untrue' plus provably damaging. Mo

Opps

Any judge is going yo be very unhappy with a solicitor who intimidates and gives a false impression of the law. I personally would be going to the Law Society and show them his harasding behaviour

Advice please.

Stop inflaming the situation by posting defamatory comments on mumsnet and inciting others to do so. Get the threads taken down and do nothing further.

If you want advice, get it outside these boards

Nah keep posting - your coments are not defamatory x

I really don’t think this is worth the stress.

Everyone is encouraging you to plough on because it’s very entertaining but the person you are dealing with might find it entertaining too. This could easily spiral out of control and cost you a lot of money. If you have a lot of spare cash then crack on otherwise take the review down.

Of course OP's review and comments are defamatory. The question simply is whether or not they are true.

Requoting post from other thread on meaning of defamation:

Defamation = the publishing of a statement which lowers the individual or the company in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally. Broadly, the test is whether a statement would cause one to think less of the person or company to whom it refers.

Defences may be based on Truth (justification), honest opinion (fair comment), publication on a matter of public interest and privilege

There's no reason to say this will cost the OP money, it's not compulsory to hire a solicitor even in litigation. Courts are very accomodating to those who self represent.
And there's always the option of a McKenzie friend.

If it was easy to bring and win a defamation claim, you'd have no win no fee lawyers banging them out left right and centre. Even when claims are successful, compensation is often a token sum rather than the massive award the Claimant was seeking...

I stand by the comment I made upthread. I thought the photos of the hotel on its own website made it look dingy, dirty and disappointing. The OPs review simply validates that. That said the place appears to have plenty of positive reviews. I'm not sure therefore why the owner is so vexed by this specific review to the point he's using a solicitor. Or maybe this bullyboy tactic has borne fruit before...who knows?

Well she could represent herself or have a Mackenzie friend but what if she loses? I genuinely don’t think it’s worth the time, insane levels of stress and potentially a lot of money.