Law firm is ordered to pay nearly $27K for suit over bad online reviews
A Texas judge has tossed a suit filed by a law firm over bad online reviews and ordered it to pay nearly $27,000 in attorney fees as a sanction for bringing the legal action.
The firm’s former client, Lai Cai, won dismissal of the case last week, her lawyer, Michael Fleming, told the Houston Press. Fleming emailed the ABA Journal an unofficial copy of the court order against the Law Offices of Tuan A. Khuu and Associates.
Fleming says he sought dismissal of the Houston law firm’s libel case under Texas laws protecting people from so-called SLAPP suits, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.
Cai, a 20-year-old waitress, alleged on Yelp and a Facebook group that “super unprofessional” and “pushy” lawyers from the Tuan A. Khuu firm came to her home and into her bedroom to secure her business after a serious car accident.
Cai claimed in the Facebook post that lawyers from the firm “came to my house and into my room to talk to me when I was sleeping in my underwear. Seriously, it’s super unprofessional!”
Tuan A. Khuu lawyer Keith Nguyen had claimed Cai’s mother invited the lawyers into the home and they had no idea Cai was in her underwear. He had said he filed the suit against Cai in July because she refused to comply with a cease-and-desist letter asking her to remove the posts.
Lawyers from the Tuan A. Khuu firm did not respond to request for comment by the Houston Press.
