Legal Questions and Answers by
Jonathan Stones of John Barkers
Question :-
A number of the clients of my web design company received an email from someone who claimed to be a student doing a research project into Grimsby-based design companies. It said:
' I have to warn you that you have been very severely ripped off. I have seen other work that the company who did your site and I know how much it would have cost. (Sic) You have been overcharged for a poorly designed site. I'm not offering my services or anything like that but from the quality services I have seen, I have to warn you about what is being done. (Sic).'
When I contacted his college it turned out that he was not a student but someone on a temporary contract in their IT department and he was offering his services. When one of my clients replied to his e-mail asking for clarification he said that because they are in Grimsby he could show them what they could get for their money.
I understand that people are always looking for business and we get many emails each day from people offering goods and services but emails like this are not the best way to go about it.
Our clients ignored it and he was sacked for sending the email from a college address. We are happy to leave the matter there on this occasion but could we have taken legal action against him.
Answer :-
It is possible that you could take action, although in this particular instance it would seem to be taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
To win damages it has to be shown, first, that what has been written is false and, second, that the communication has damaged your reputation.
It would seem the email was ignored by your clients, with the exception of one person who asked him to explain what he was suggesting, and then clearly passed the information on to you. Therefore you have not suffered any damage. Had you lost clients the situation would of course be more serious.
At a purely practical level, there is not normally a lot of point in suing someone if they haven't got the wherewithal to pay any damages awarded against them and a young person on a temporary contract would not usually be very affluent.
In some situations one might be able to go for the employer but in this case I think the chances of success would be quite slim: He was not acting on their behalf or with their knowledge . . he was in clear breach of the rules they had laid down . . . and they took immediate and severe disciplinary action as soon as they became aware of what had occurred.
Had he not been operating from his college but on his own equipment, the quick and cost effective way of putting a shot across his bows would have been to send him a solicitor's letter. Only if he ignored that - and if he was doing damage - would it then be necessary to look at court action.
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