Jason 'Jay' Page, 20, from Telford, reaped a legal whirlwind when he posted a wounding review on Colorado-based Timothy Bussey's Google Maps profile.
The anonymous post described the US lawyer as 'a scumbag' and accused him paying for his firm's positive reviews on the web.
Mr Bussey was left fuming by the anonymous post, which seemed to be from a dissatisfied client and stated to the world that 'he loses 80% of his cases'.
The post remained live on the web for about a year and Mr Bussey and his firm, The Bussey Law Firm, suffered severe damage to their reputations.
Mr Bussey was not willing to let the matter rest and, at huge expense, employed a Californian law firm to subpoena Google's records to find out who was responsible.
That led him to the door of Mr Page, aged in his 20s, who was living with his parents in Sutton Hill, Telford, and ended up on the receiving end of a full-scale High Court libel case.
He insisted that he bore no responsibility for the post and that his Google account must have been hacked by someone else.
He said that a hacker might have been seeking revenge for something he had done as a 'moderator' of the www.reddit.com website.
However, Judge Sir David Eady said hacking into Mr Page's account would have been challenging, with the perpetrator needing to bypass passwords and sophisticated security.
There was no indication that anyone held a grudge against him and the judge described the hacking explanation as 'extremely improbable'.
The 'overwhelming probability' was that Mr Page had either authored the post himself or authorised it.
The judge added: 'Why Mr Page should himself choose to attack Mr Bussey and his firm is unclear, but the most likely explanation would appear to be a purely financial one'.
Taking into account the 'grapevine effect' on the internet, the judge had no doubt that the post had caused serious damage to Mr Bussey and his firm's good name.
He ordered Mr Page to pay £50,000 damages, along with Mr Bussey's legal costs. He must pay £50,000 of those on account, pending final assessment of the costs bill.
We hope that this decision sends a message that fake negative reviews have a real impact on real people and those who post them
Mr Bussey's solicitor, Will Richmond-Coggan, said later: 'This is a great result for our clients.
'Their reputations have at last been vindicated following this calculated attack through the medium of an online review site'
He said that Mr Page's post may well have been 'solicited' by others and Mr Bussey would continue his legal fight on both sides of the Atlantic to find out who may have been responsible.
Mr Richmond-Coggan added: 'We hope that this decision sends a message that fake negative reviews have a real impact on real people and those who post them can and will be held accountable.'
Serves him Right. It's true! I think he was paid to leave the comment!
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