An article in the Times Educational Supplement reports that a court in Germany has ruled that schoolchildren may rate their teachers online.

The Court rejected the case of a woman who argued that her pupils had infringed her rights by giving her poor grades on the popular site spickmich.de. The German Federal Court of Justice found that pupils had the right to offer their opinions so long as their teachers were not hindered professionally.

Similar controversy (though, to my knowledge, no litigation) has followed sites such as RateMyTeachers in the UK with teachers complaining about unfavourable comments from pupils.

To my mind (outside the ordinary laws of defamation) there is absolutely no reason why teachers should not be subject to pupil evaluation on the web. After all, pupils’ views are now sought as an integral part of HMIe school inspection reports – which are reported online too.

Maybe it’s time for a RateMyLawyer website? Or is that why we have Chambers and Legal 500?