Dentist - Defamation of Character?

[tinandrew]

Hi all again,
I'm a dentist and used to associate in an office for 6 yrs and there was an ownership change. After the ownership change, I felt uncomfortable working there for many reason and I decided to leave the practice about 4 months. For the past 3 weeks, I have been getting phone calls from previous patients about comments made at the previous office about me. They have been saying that I was a bad dentist and that I was unsupervised and my quality of work was poor and that they didn't want me there. It got to a point where they told one of my patients to sue me for malpractice for a tooth that I restored 2 yrs ago that "supposedly had a post perf the tooth". They gave that patient my HOME phone number and told her to contact me directly. Now, the patient doesn't want to go to the previous office anymore and now wants to take her whole family to see me. My question is, can I get the previous owner for "defamation of character and slander"? I don't know how to stop the abuse. My professional reputation is on the line.
Please help. Thanks

 

[The Occultist]

Firstly, nobody will care about your home phone number being given out; that is public information.

Secondly, have you suffered any damages? In order to win a defamation suit you would have to prove that the defamation is occurring, and prove that it is causing you damages.

 

[tinandrew]

Thank you for responding. My professional character will definately be damaged. In a profession where patients rely on a doctors judgement and care, it is very damaging to have someone attack your character unjustly. Mental anguish is also a result of this defamtaion. I can't even sleep at night knowing that there may be patients out there that actually believe her and the possibility that they may sue me for malpractice is very scary. Maybe suing her for defamation and slander may be going a little far, but wouldn't it get her attention and hopefully get her to back off?

 

[The Occultist]

Maybe I misread your post, but it sounded like you said that a patient became so upset that she made sure she kept seeing you instead of going back to the other place. Kind of hard to prove damages when that happens...

 

[ISUE4YOU2]

I do not see any damage either, but I do see some spelling errors in his posts!

 

[tinandrew]

Sorry for the misunderstandings. The patient was my patient for 6 yrs and so are the rest of her family. They all trust me and they know I wouldn't intentionally harm them in anyway. The reason why she wants to see me now is because she no longer trusts the other doctor that told her to sue me. She now realize that the other doctor is just being vengeful. That is just lucky on my part. I fear one day, there will be a patient that will actually believe the other doctor and sue me for mal-practice. That is scary!

 

[ISUE4YOU2]

That's what you have malpractice insurance for, right?

 

[Quaere]

Tinandrew:

If someone has made a false, defamatory statement about you, yes, you can sue them.

If in particular they have made false accusations about the quality of your work, you MAY not have to prove any damages (look up defamation per se). Most (NOT all) States allow presumed damages in a defamation per se claim.

It makes no difference that the witness who came to you does not believe the allegations.

Here is the hard part. There is a very thin line between someone stating an “opinion” and stating something as if it were a FACT. In order for something to be defamatory, it has to have been stated as fact. The fact/opinion determination can only be made by examining EXACTLY what was said.

Proving exactly what was said is nearly impossible if only one witness heard the statement.

Still, you could bring the suit based on the testimony of a lone witness and let the jury decide. Defending a defamation suit will cost $$$, so the mere threat of a suit may put a stop to what has been happening.

Send the offending party a letter. You don’t need any legalese.

Just inform the “defendant” (in a businesslike manner) that you understand he/she is making disparaging remarks about your competence, that these statements are causing irreparable harm to your professional reputation, and that you expect these attacks to stop immediately.

Tell him/her that if you hear of any further such activity from their office, you will turn the matter over to an attorney and pursue a defamation claim.

Good luck!

 

[ISUE4YOU2]

Send that letter only if you intend on following through if the comments do not stop.