Lawyer from Wildeshausen back in court: fraud and negative reviews!

Lawyer from Wildeshausen back in court: fraud and negative reviews!

A Wildeshausen lawyer is once again confronted with serious allegations. He is currently being tried at the Oldenburg regional court after he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for fraud in February of this year. Although the verdict is not yet final, he is now also charged with embezzling 400,000 euros. There seems to be no end to the legal turmoil.

In the upcoming hearing at the end of January 2025, the legal situation regarding a Berlin client will be clarified. He accuses the lawyer of having collected around 30,000 euros for court costs and legal services without providing the agreed service. The client expressed his dissatisfaction in a Google review, which severely damaged the image of the Wildeshausen law firm. The lawyer subsequently attempted to take legal action against the assessment, but failed and ultimately had to withdraw his application for an interim injunction.

Evaluation and freedom of expression in focus

The discussion about Google ratings also brings with it other legal aspects. The Oldenburg Higher Regional Court recently decided in another case that reviews on the Internet are permissible within the scope of freedom of expression. In this case, a dealer gave the lawyer a negative rating without being a client. The Higher Regional Court made it clear that a balance must be struck between the interference with the lawyer's rights and the evaluator's freedom of expression. The regional court had previously upheld the lawyer's opinion, but the higher regional court reversed the decision.

In the middle of the last few months, a strange phenomenon continued to occur: the lawyer received a lot of five-star reviews on Google. One thoughtful reviewer noticed that many of these positive reviews came from users who also had positive words for the same product on the Trustpilot platform. This striking similarity in style and choice of words aroused suspicion. Other reviews went in a completely different direction and didn't leave a good impression. Another reviewer summed it up aptly: “If you don’t want to achieve anything, absolutely nothing, then you’ve come to the right place with a lawyer.”

These developments shed light on the legal and ethical challenges facing the legal profession. The upcoming negotiations and the general current allegations are eagerly awaited, while the public is critically watching what happens next with the Wildeshausen lawyer. Reports about the situation and the upcoming legal disputes can be found at www.kreiszeitung.de.