Re: This May Answer The Question About Legal Status Of What Is Said In This Forum ...
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Mon Jun 11 11:59:43 2007
I think we've beaten Dr. Flea's horse to death already lol.
Art
At Mon, 11 Jun 2007, Dean Huffman . wrote:
>
>.
>
>Doctor's Blog Sinks Malpractice Defense
>
>The National Law Journal
>
>A doctor's anonymous Web log recently undermined his malpractice defense and
>effected a quick out-of-court settlement. The case, which an ABA representative
>calls a first of its kind, highlights the hazards for attorneys if they don't
>keep up with their clients' online activities.
>
>--
>
>http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1181293541242
>
>--
>
>Doctor's Blog Sinks Malpractice Defense
>
>Stacey Laskin
>
>The National Law Journal
>
>June 11, 2007
>
>Law Technology News
>
>Courts have expressed apprehension about jurors who blog during trials. Now they
>may have to start worrying about defendants.
>
>In a recent Boston malpractice suit, pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman admitted,
>while on the stand, that he was the creator of "drfleablog," a Web log
>detailing his disdain for malpractice litigation and revealing information
>about the case his lawyers had mailed to him. Vinroy Binns and Deborah Binns v.
>Robert P. Lindeman and Natick Pediatrics, No. 2003-4544 (M.A.).
>
>Lindeman did a Web search on the plaintiff's attorney, Elizabeth N. Mulvey, and
>discovered a set of Power Point slides that Mulvey had once made for a lecture.
>He included a link to the Power Point presentation on his blog.
>
>After receiving a tip about the link from another lawyer, Mulvey found the blog.
>She surprised the pediatrician in court by asking him on the stand if he was Dr.
>Flea. Lindeman admitted he was the site's ghostwriter. He settled out of court
>the next day.
>
>Lindeman was on trial for allegedly failing to diagnose diabetes in patient
>Jaymes Binns, who died a few weeks later from a complication of the disease.
>
>On his blog, Lindeman said his attorneys informed him that only 3 percent of a
>jury's decision comes from the medical details. The rest is based on the
>physician's character, as established during the trial.
>
>"The only tack that has a prayer of prevailing is to prove to the jury that the
>doctor is a drooling, blithering idiot," Lindeman wrote. "Flea's only remaining
>fear is that the (female) plaintiff's attorney will be mean to him." Lindeman,
>who was unavailable for comment, has recently deleted the content from the
>blog. His attorney, Paul R. Greenberg of Rindler Morgan in Boston, declined
>comment.
>
>NO PRIVACY
>
>Attorneys should make sure clients have not posted anonymous information on the
>Internet that could affect their trial because it is still considered to be a
>public forum, said Mulvey, of Boston's Crowe & Mulvey.
>
>"Just like anything else a client may have written or said in a lecture, it is a
>potential source of prior impeaching information." Lindeman's action "seems to
>me like such an obviously stupid thing to do," said Ken Withers, the director
>of judicial education and content for The Sedona Conference, an Arizona-based
>nonprofit research organization, which publishes a guide to confidentiality and
>public access.
>
>"Some people live in a fantasy world," he said. "They believe what they say or
>do on the Internet is somehow private. They may believe that running a blog
>shields them from identity -- it does not. It would be no great effort for
>anyone to discover the source of a posting or the host." A New Hampshire case
>involving a juror who posted entries about court duty on his blog raised
>similar concerns earlier this year, prompting legal experts to predict that
>warnings on blogging may become a regular part of jury instructions and voir
>dire.
>
>Nancy Slonim, a representative from the American Bar Association's Chicago
>office, said there are no specific guidelines regarding client blog use
>mentioned in the ABA ethics code. She also said this seems to be the first time
>a blog has affected a trial in such a way.
>
>Still, Mulvey warns that blogs and other social networking sites such as
>Facebook and MySpace can tip off opposing council.
>
>Mulvey, who represents mostly younger individuals, said she always tells clients
>to assume their mothers and attorneys working on a lawsuit might be reading
>profiles or clicking through posted pictures.
>
--
art fougner, md
"May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
