lawsuit

Free Speech Rights For Patients Online

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An interesting article appears over on drbicuspid.com over at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=309247 titled “Lawsuit claims dentist stifled patients’ free speech rights” by Donna Domino and posted on Dec. 1 2011. A discussion is made of a New York dentist and a class action lawsuit that was filed in late November. The complaint was filed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group. In the case a patient went to the New York dentist and signed an agreement by Medical Justice  in which the patient agreed not to denigrate or disparage the dentist on the Internet or other broadcast media. The patient went to the dentist because of a sore tooth and was charged $4,766 for two office visits. The patient says the insurance claim was sent to the wrong insurance company and was 25 times the going rate. The patient requested his records so … Read more

How to Improve Your Chances to Win a Dental Malpractice Lawsuit

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Tom over at OralAnswers has previously written a post on how to win a dental malpractice suit http://www.oralanswers.com/2010/07/sue-your-dentist-and-win-malpractice-lawsuit/ I also discuss on my U.S. Legal System and Medical Malpractice page http://www.teethremoval.com/legal_system_medical_malpractice the 4 elements you must prove to have a chance at winning a malpractice suit. (1) the doctor to provide a standard of care to patients in the locality where the treatment occured (legal duty) (2) the doctor breached that standard of care (3) an injury causing damages (4) the breach of the standard of care was the proximate cause of the injury. Now as is quite clear on my site I disagree with the current ‘standard of care’ of removing healthy wisdom teeth in young healthy patients in the U.S. This is not the standard of care in the U.K. I wanted to touch on an additional element in … Read more

Legal Standpoint of Oral Surgery Complications

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As I have written on my website, I disagree with wisdom teeth removal from a legal standpoint (in addition to scientific). Essentially what I argue is that if you have your wisdom teeth extracted and suffer a complication that is not one of the better known you may not recover any money and be left with the pain, suffering, and loss of earnings for the rest of your life. A recent oral surgeon lawsuit after wisdom teeth removal helps reaffirm my previous remarks.  The article states that Cynthia Thompson sued Dr Princell because he did not disclose all the risks of surgery and she suffered a neurological syndrome (specifically a damaged inferior alveolar nerve) as a result of the wisdom teeth removal. “During the trial, 3 oral surgeons told the court that they knew little about the causes of the … Read more

Dentists Fight Review Sites

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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 … Read more