Received threatening email from dentist

[Dursel9]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Recently I had a bad experience with a dentist. He was not only rude, arrogant and condescending during my sole visit to his office but he took a dental instrument and scraped at one of my teeth and made its condition worse. I was quite upset about this and other matters and wrote a negative review of the dentist on Yelp. Today I received an email threatening me with legal action if I did not take down the review. My question to you is can this dentist sue me for writing about my negative experiences under his care?

 

[cbg]

Yes, he can. Whether he can win such a suit or not depends on EXACTLY what you said.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Recently I had a bad experience with a dentist. He was not only rude, arrogant and condescending during my sole visit to his office but he took a dental instrument and scraped at one of my teeth and made its condition worse. I was quite upset about this and other matters and wrote a negative review of the dentist on Yelp. Today I received an email threatening me with legal action if I did not take down the review. My question to you is can this dentist sue me for writing about my negative experiences under his care?

Yes, the dentist can sue you for writing a negative review on Yelp about your experience. Yelp reviews have spawned many defamation lawsuits. But, whether the dentist can win any defamation suit filed against you will depend on what exactly you said in your review and what injury to his reputation he has suffered as a result.

Very few people can write negative reviews without exaggerating their experiences or embellishing the facts. It will be the exaggerations and embellishments that often stray into defamation territory. A review writer should stick to provable facts and pure opinions (those that do not imply false facts). Unfortunately, most people find it hard to do this.

You might want to have the email you received from the dentist, and your Yelp review, looked at by an attorney in Pennsylvania. The personal review can give you a better idea of your risk of being sued or, at least, of being sued successfully. And, if you are served with a summons and complaint, I recommend you sit down with an attorney in your area to work on an answer and a defense. Professional reputations are valuable and the defaming of a professional can result in a lawsuit against the defamer that results in a significant award of damages to the professional.

Good luck.