Lawyer Sues 20-Year-Old Student Who Gave a Bad Yelp Review, Loses Badly (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on Friday December 2, 2016 @09:20AM from the empire-strikes-back dept.

20-year-old Lan Cai was in a car crash this summer, after she was plowed into by a drunk driver and broke two bones in her lower back. She didn't know how to navigate her car insurance and prove damages, so she reached out for legal help. Things didn't go as one would have liked, initially, as ArsTechnica documents:The help she got, Cai said, was less than satisfactory. Lawyers from the Tuan A. Khuu law firm ignored her contacts, and at one point they came into her bedroom while Cai was sleeping in her underwear. "Seriously, it's super unprofessional!" she wrote on Facebook. (The firm maintains it was invited in by Cai's mother.) She also took to Yelp to warn others about her bad experience. The posts led to a threatening e-mail from Tuan Khuu attorney Keith Nguyen. Nguyen and his associates went ahead and filed that lawsuit, demanding the young woman pay up between $100,000 and $200,000 -- more than 100 times what she had in her bank account. Nguyen said he didn't feel bad at all about suing Cai. Cai didn't remove her review, though. Instead she fought back against the Khuu firm, all thanks to attorney Michael Fleming, who took her case pro bono. Fleming filed a motion arguing that, first and foremost, Cai's social media complaints were true. Second, she couldn't do much to damage the reputation of a firm that already had multiple poor reviews. He argued the lawsuit was a clear SLAPP (strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation). Ultimately, the judge agreed with Fleming, ordering the Khuu firm to pay $26,831.55 in attorneys' fees.

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Non-zero sum by jgullstr · 2016-12-02 09:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

I wonder what outcome the firm was expecting from this lawsuit? In what way does winning 200k imaginary dollars outweigh the reputation of them suing their own clients for sharing their experiences? Am I missing something?
1. Re:Non-zero sum by godrik · 2016-12-02 09:57 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They were certainly hoping that the client will negociate "no lawsuit, but I'll remove my review"
2. Re:Non-zero sum by Mr.+Shotgun · 2016-12-02 10:34 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Intimidation.
  They were not intending to go through with the suit and were using the threat of having a $200,000 judgment against here as a way to pressure her into removing her review. They were hoping she would cower and hide away, not bitch SLAAP them for $26K with the help of an actual honest lawyer.
  
  --
  Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the (supposed) good of its victims may be the most oppressive
Re:Pro Bono? by alexo · 2016-12-02 11:00 · Score: 3, Insightful

If "filing documents and other case-related expenses", excluding lawyer's time costs $26,831.55 then I weep for the so called "justice" system.