HOUSTON – A Houston law firm must pay a Houston Community College student nearly $27,000 in legal fees following its unsuccessful attempt to sue the student over negative reviews on Facebook and Yelp.

Student Lan Cai, 20, reached out to the Tuan A. Khuu law firm after she was involved in a crash with a drunken driver this summer that left her with two broken bones in her lower back, then wrote about the experience online when she realized they were giving her the run-around, the Houston Press reports.

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According to Ars Technica:

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. “Serious, 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.

On Yelp, Cai wrote:

When I first start talking to them they were very pushy. I didn’t really feel comfortable. Like I mention, this is fairly new to me! When I try to reach them, no one would answer my call or email. I was so lost with my insurance, I didn’t know what to do with my car. So I did a little research I found a new lawyer on Google. I asked this law firm to release me, it’s not a hard task. They taking their sweet time just to forward something so simple. Please, don’t waste your time here!

On Facebook, Cai alleged the law firm put a lien on her insurance reimbursement, failed to help her find a doctor, couldn’t locate her car, and refused to release her as a client. Cai wrote her original attorney “literally ran off” when she went into the office to confront him.

Shortly after she vented her frustrations online, Cai received an email from her attorney at the firm.

“He emailed me, and said, ‘I saw what you wrote on social media and I need you to remove it right now,” Cai told KPRC in July. “I posted a review on Facebook, Yelp, Google. I posted that, ‘Please don’t go to this law firm because of what they did to me.’”

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In the email, Nuguyen wrote that “If you do not remove the post from Facebook and any other social media sites, my office will have no choice but to file suit.”

When Cai refused, Nguyen sued the student for libel and requested between $100,000 and $200,000 in damages “because she put disparaging remarks online and she was telling half truths,” Nguyen told KPRC.

“No, I don’t feel bad at all. I feel sorry for her, because again, I gave her plenty of opportunities to retract and delete her post and she refused,” Nguyen told the Press. “She was proud: ‘I’ve got it on Facebook. I’ve got it on Yelp,’ with no remorse.”

Attorney Michael Fleming took Cai’s case pro bono and made several compelling arguments that ultimately convinced a judge to dismiss the case and award Cai $26,831.55 in legal fees, according to ruling.

Fleming argued that Cai’s online complaints were true, the firm’s reputation was already damaged from multiple bad reviews online, and the firm’s attempt to sue Cai for libel constituted a “SLAPP” suit – or a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.”

“Texas law calls for SLAPP suits to be thrown out of court early on in litigation,” according to Digital Trends.

“We are very happy with the judge’s correct ruling in this case,” Fleming wrote to Ars Technica in an email. “Texas law specifically protects folks who are exercising their free speech rights and the statute was appropriately applied in this situation. People should be free to express their opinions without the threat of a lawsuit.”

The Khuu firm has not commented on the ruling, according to the site.