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By on July 15, 2010

Cosmetic Surgeon Sues Online Critics to Save Face(lifts)

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The next time you leave a scathing review of a business, you may want to make sure you are giving opinions and not stating falsehoods as facts. The former should see your speech protected. The latter could bring on the wrath of litigious cosmetic surgeon, determined to sue your butt for millions of dollars!

That’s the case in California, where a doctor is suing critics that filed negative reviews on Yelp.com and DoctorScorecard.com.

[Dr. Kimberly] Henry’s lawsuit, filed in Marin Superior Court, claims libel and defamation, invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage. She is seeking $1 million in general damages, $1 million in special damages, unspecified punitive damages, legal costs, injunctions against the reviewers and restraining orders.

Twelve anonymous aliases have been listed and three defendants have actually been named in the case. How come three have been revealed? The naive owner of DoctorScorecard.com buckled upon receiving his first ever subpoena–quickly handing over the email and IP addresses of Henry’s critics.

<insert rolling eyes here>

To be fair, you can’t blame him for handing over the info. Blame the even more naive judge that issued the court order!

So, does the suit have any merit?

I guess that is for the court to decide. Stating opinions is one thing, but defamation laws are so complex that you don’t even need to make outlandish statements of fact, before you run afoul of them. Still, if a judge decides that Henry’s suit is without merit, he could enforce California’s law against so-called SLAPPs–strategic lawsuits against public participation–which are lawsuits aimed to squelch free speech of online reviewers.

Lastly, I’m left wondering why Henry didn’t simple give herself a nose-job and start again in a new city. :-P

(via)


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8 comments on “Cosmetic Surgeon Sues Online Critics to Save Face(lifts)”

  1. Josh Says:

    July 15th, 2010 at 8:48 am

    Wow, you gotta wonder if this will help her reputation. I guess depending on what was said, her new slogan can be, “Like your new face or get sued”. Btw Andy, I laughed pretty hard when the Google Ads above were for plastic surgery. You branching out into other careers?

    Andy Beal Reply:
    July 15th, 2010 at 9:17 am

    Yeah, you gotta love AdWords’ context matching! ;-)

  2. Vlad Zablotskyy Says:

    July 15th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    Having been involved in a lawsuit myself (as a defendant) in the past, I can tell you Andy that this Doc might be shooting himself in the foot. I am guessing, unlike the case brought by ePerks (currently LeapFish) against me, this case is bound to generate lots of media attention. If that is what he is looking for, good for him…

    Unlike TV Internet has a long memory even if his argument prevails. On the web he will go down as some one who sued his critics. I say very bad move to save he face, it may require a surgical intervention of some one of your caliber to actually help the doc!

    Andy Beal Reply:
    July 15th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    That’s a good point. Even if the Dr. wins, it doesn’t look good that a search for her name will likely reveal the lawsuit.

  3. MyDocHub.com Says:

    July 16th, 2010 at 9:28 am

    The chance of it reducing the continued growth of online doctor reviews is remote. Doctors just have to get used to doing business in a new consumer generated healthcare system.

  4. Joan Says:

    July 17th, 2010 at 5:02 am

    I work in Marin county near Dr. Henry’s practice. Most of the comments I have heard from people re her lawsuit is extremely negative. Well, the general comment is why would I ever consider going to this surgeon because if I complain about anything, she’ll probably sue me.
    Also, I totally agree that Dr. Henry’s practice has suffered–it’s called the recession! When people are strapped to pay the mortgage, plastic surgery is no longer a high priority.
    Instead of retaining an attorney, I think the Dr. should have spent her money on a good public relations agent .

  5. MAC cosmetics Says:

    July 20th, 2010 at 9:46 am

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  6. susan Says:

    August 5th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    sorry about the typo …thats uphold not unhold lol .. sorry …