A new article by the ADA was published a few days ago about dentists fighting online websites where some seek to damage their name. The article can be found at http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3529.
The article focuses on the review site Yelp and how one doctor found terrible ratings of herself online. The doctor went so far as to have her attorney sue the person who posted the rating on the site for libel.
The doctor’s attorney states that “The parameters of the First Amendment weren’t intended to protect defamatory speech. If there were no limits whatsoever, we could charge anyone with anything. We can’t use speech in a way that is intended to hurt someone.”
I personally believe that free speech protects our interests in giving our reviews of doctors, dentists, businesses, whatever you name it. I’m sure if we were to talk to our friends or family about a bad experience at the doctor no lawsuit would likely result. The real issue here seems to be that doctors and dentists are trying to leverage everything that they have to cry that they are not like a business.
I personally think this article is a load of crap and a bunch of B.S. We should be allowed to express our opinions of doctors and businesses for the way that they are. With the emergence of the internet, this information no longer is kept amongst a few individuals who experience the problems and share with a few others. Now it can be posted and displayed for the entire public.This is where the real problem is.
What doctors and businesses what to avoid, and rightfully so, is when people complain and offer reviews that stretch the truth and opinion. This could be in cases where a patient arrives 15 minutes late at the doctor, then the doctor can no longer see them for an hour, and has to cut the appointment short. This could then cause the patient to rate the doctor low and say comments relating to this. I have seen such an example occur in practice.
However, the problem I have with defamation and libel is the fact that sometimes you can say something that makes a factual claim against a business or individual or something that may harm that business or individual or something. Even if the claim is in fact true (it does not have to be false) that person can still be sued for libel. This is what I think needs to be investigated more by the general public so that the laws are changed. As this prevents the truth of speech from being expressed both verbally and in written form. The U.S. prides itself on free speech, but when it comes to negative experiences with doctors, dentists, or businesses, this turns out to not be the case, as if the truth is expressed, a lawsuit for saying the truth can result, even if the truth is factual and correct in statement.