Medical Justice provides consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a consultation – or use the tool shared below.
“Can Medical Justice solve my problem?” Click here to review recent consultations…
all. Here’s a sample of typical recent consultation discussions…
- Former employee stole patient list. Now a competitor…
- Patient suing doctor in small claims court…
- Just received board complaint…
- Allegations of sexual harassment by employee…
- Patient filed police complaint doctor inappropriately touched her…
- DEA showed up to my office…
- Patient “extorting” me. “Pay me or I’ll slam you online.”
- My carrier wants me to settle. My case is fully defensible…
- My patient is demanding an unwarranted refund…
- How do I safely terminate doctor-patient relationship?
- How to avoid reporting to Data Bank…
- I want my day in court. But don’t want to risk my nest egg…
- Hospital wants to fire me…
- Sham peer review inappropriately limiting privileges…
- Can I safely use stem cells in my practice?
- Patient’s results are not what was expected…
- Just received request for medical records from an attorney…
- Just received notice of intent to sue…
- Just received summons for meritless case…
- Safely responding to negative online reviews…
We challenge you to supply us with a medico-legal obstacle we haven’t seen before. Know you are in good hands. Schedule your consultation below – or click here to visit our booking page.
First, the obvious. The subject of this article is a moving company, not a doctor’s office. But there are lessons to be learned by examining why this particular moving company is in the crosshairs. We recently published an article about an aesthetic surgeon accused of using similar tactics to control his online reputation. What do both businesses have in common? They are now media stories.
Liberty Bell Moving and Storage is a moving company based in the Northeast. Like the protagonists of our previous article, they tried to use contracts to stop customers from publishing negative online reviews. “Bad reviews” posted on social media or review aggregators would be deemed “false and defamatory” by the business. Customers who posted the reviews would be subject to fines and litigation.
These accusations, among others, motivated the Attorney General to investigate the business. Following the investigation’s conclusion, the state of Maine sued Liberty over violations of the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act, Maine’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, and other violations specific to businesses that offer interstate moving services.
So, the contracts spurred the investigation. But there’s more to the story than that. What else was going on?
Liberty is accused of sending disgruntled customers emails threatening fines and litigation if the customer failed to remove reviews and social media posts the company deemed “defamatory.” Liberty threatened to sue those who refused to comply. The emails also implied disgruntled customers would be responsible for paying “lawyer fees upwards of $9,500.”
Customers received these threats via a custom email address designed to appear as though it was the property of the company’s legal team. An intimidation tactic meant to scare recipients into compliance. It isn’t obvious to us that the “legal team” backing this email address even existed. Our source article suggests this department was likely a phantom.
Seems like overkill. But wait – there’s more. The company also leveraged loan-shark-style interest rates to bully customers who published “defamatory” reviews into paying excessive fines.
The company also warned of a “defamation fee” totaling $1,000 that would be assessed if the negative reviews are left up that would be subject to a 2.5% interest rate compounded daily – which “will essentially double the amount” to $2,000 after 30 days.
The Attorney General had a field day.
“It is ironic that a company named for an iconic symbol of freedom would concern itself with violating the free speech and other legally entitled rights of consumers,” Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey said in a statement. “I hope this case will remind consumers that no business can require you to waive your right to leave honest reviews of businesses and products.”
The AG’s closing statement obviously applies to medical practices as well.
Our source material indicates Liberty settled. Based on the facts as we understand them, it is hard to imagine the company rallying an effective defense. Per the settlement, the review contracts are out. The email address belonging to the company’s “legal team” must also disappear. And then there’s the $125,000 fine. Between the damning media story and the six-figure financial penalty, we wager Liberty’s strategy didn’t pay off in the long term.
While the suspect in this piece is a moving company, many of the “lessons learned” apply to medical practices. Attempting to censure patients via contracts and fines is a bad practice. There are better ways of managing your online reputation. Heavy-handed “tactics” like those described in this piece will quickly turn patients into enemies and doctors into targets.
What do you think? Let us know your thoughts below.
Medical Justice provides consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a consultation – or use the tool shared below.
“Can Medical Justice solve my problem?” Click here to review recent consultations…
all. Here’s a sample of typical recent consultation discussions…
- Former employee stole patient list. Now a competitor…
- Patient suing doctor in small claims court…
- Just received board complaint…
- Allegations of sexual harassment by employee…
- Patient filed police complaint doctor inappropriately touched her…
- DEA showed up to my office…
- Patient “extorting” me. “Pay me or I’ll slam you online.”
- My carrier wants me to settle. My case is fully defensible…
- My patient is demanding an unwarranted refund…
- How do I safely terminate doctor-patient relationship?
- How to avoid reporting to Data Bank…
- I want my day in court. But don’t want to risk my nest egg…
- Hospital wants to fire me…
- Sham peer review inappropriately limiting privileges…
- Can I safely use stem cells in my practice?
- Patient’s results are not what was expected…
- Just received request for medical records from an attorney…
- Just received notice of intent to sue…
- Just received summons for meritless case…
- Safely responding to negative online reviews…
We challenge you to supply us with a medico-legal obstacle we haven’t seen before. Know you are in good hands. Schedule your consultation below – or click here to visit our booking page.
Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Dr. Jeffrey Segal, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Medical Justice, is a board-certified neurosurgeon. Dr. Segal is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; the American College of Legal Medicine; and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is also a member of the North American Spine Society. In the process of conceiving, funding, developing, and growing Medical Justice, Dr. Segal has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice issues, counterclaims, and internet-based assaults on reputation.
Dr. Segal was a practicing neurosurgeon for approximately ten years, during which time he also played an active role as a participant on various state-sanctioned medical review panels designed to decrease the incidence of meritless medical malpractice cases.
Dr. Segal holds a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, where he also completed a neurosurgical residency. Dr. Segal served as a Spinal Surgery Fellow at The University of South Florida Medical School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the AOA Medical Honor Society. Dr. Segal received his B.A. from the University of Texas and graduated with a J.D. from Concord Law School with highest honors.
In 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on the discovery and development of first-of-class pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dr. Segal is also a partner at Byrd Adatto, a national business and health care law firm. Byrd Adatto was selected as a Best Law Firm in the 2023 edition of the “Best Law Firms” list by U.S. News – Best Lawyers. With decades of combined experience in serving doctors, dentists, and other providers, Byrd Adatto has a national pedigree to address most legal issues that arise in the business and practice of medicine.
I’m not at liberty to say….
The difference between a moving company and a physician is obvious. Any patient so threatened by a physician would turn around and threaten to sue the physician for malpractice.
If the customer of the moving company threatened to sue, it would be civil litigation and there would be no incentive to do since the lawyer for the customer would not bill that under contingency. This brings us to the current case. Should they have threatened a lawsuit against customers complaining online IF IT WAS NOT DESERVED? Of course they should! While a customer can claim freedom of speech, the business could claim that they are being slandered. The business is within its right to defend against slander.
All of that said, the best antidote to negative reviews is to drown them out with positive reviews.
Also, if the moving company has received legitimate complaints, it behooves them to start addressing those complaints proactively, by reaching out to the customer and once the issue is resolved, or as part of the process, ask the complainant to remove the negative feedback.
I have seen numerous cases where, in various businesses, a comment would be made following a bad review that “please contact us and we will try to make it right.” Or, “we understand you are disappointed; however, this is how we looked at it.”
Physicians cannot usually respond publicly to a patient complaint online, due to confidentiality issues. At best they could only say that “We have read your complaint. We are not allowed to discuss the issues you raised due to confidentiality issues. However, we have read it and are aware of your concerns. We certainly wish you the best. Thanks for allowing us to care for you!”
You should probably discuss this with your liability carrier and a good healthcare lawyer. At the very least, your liability carrier should provide you with rather neutral, pablum based verbiage, so at least you could respond.
I have looked up a lot of poor reviews, especially on Amazon. I usually try to run them through my BS detector. For example, if an item only lasts a few months, I will probably not buy it. Or, if a language translator device does not work offline, I would probably not buy it either.
I like to think that most savvy social media folks take these with more than a grain of salt.
Michael M. Rosenblatt, DPM