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I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

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Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#81

Post by ballenf »

OscarCunningham wrote: post #66
ssijak wrote: post #45

One thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing y…

The "prices" are moves in a game played between hospitals and insurance providers, and don't correspond to anything real or to the amount that gets paid. If a hospital discovers that the patient doesn't have insurance they'll be charged the real (more reasonable) prices instead.

That used to be the case, but in the last two years I have gotten $1k+ bills after insurance that are very real. For relatively common visits to in-network providers.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#82

Post by Fej »

ssijak wrote: post #45

One thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing y…

A significant amount of people have been duped into voting against their own interests.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#83

Post by avn2109 »

Nadya wrote: post #34
jastanton wrote: post #6

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

>Wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Basically an open and shut case too. Assuming they were smart enough to "correct" the mistake it may not be a Tier 4 ($50,000+) violation, but instead a Tier 3 violation ($10,000 - $50,000 per violation) of willful neglect. I'm not sure if each violation above would be considered a single large violation or multiple small violations ( 1 violation vs…

Twenty grand in legal fees in Manhattan is about four days of attorney time, if you're lucky.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#84

Post by leesalminen »

Nadya wrote: post #34
jastanton wrote: post #6

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

>Wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Basically an open and shut case too. Assuming they were smart enough to "correct" the mistake it may not be a Tier 4 ($50,000+) violation, but instead a Tier 3 violation ($10,000 - $50,000 per violation) of willful neglect. I'm not sure if each violation above would be considered a single large violation or multiple small violations ( 1 violation vs…

$20,000 is nothing for litigation these days. Most advise planning for a minimum of $50,000 or $100,000 to fight something out with a judge.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#85

Post by imbur »

ballenf wrote: post #71
leeter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reviews are protected speech, this has been litigated multiple times and has precedent in the US. If you live in an area with a SLAPP law I would suggest getting an attorney to file a SLAPP motion for you. The onus is then on the plaintiff to prove they aren't suing you to stifle your speech. If they can't then they have to pay full court costs and your attorney's fees as well as a penalty in many jurisdictions. In t…

That's fine but they don't have to pay until after the case and appeals. Meaning you have to be able to front the litigation costs in order to have a chance at recovering them. There is a non-zero risk of losing. I would suggest using a pseudonym and VPN for any review written on a potentially litigious business unless you have the funds to litigate. Problem is Yelp is much more likely to mark the review as spam.

Many lawyers will take anti-slapp cases on contingency so you don't have to pay up front either

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#86

Post by joering2 »

matte_black wrote: post #72
ballenf wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine but they don't have to pay until after the case and appeals. Meaning you have to be able to front the litigation costs in order to have a chance at recovering them. There is a non-zero risk of losing. I would suggest using a pseudonym and VPN for any review written on a potentially litigious business unless you have the funds to litigate. Problem is Yelp is much more likely to mark the review as spam.

What if you win but they immediately go bankrupt and cannot pay you back?

They can go bankrupt the second judge handles verdict, but this would definitely be out of scope of said person bankrupcy proceedings similar to your education loan cannot be included into bankrupcy. the judge proceeding in bankrupcy claim will clearly see whats this is about.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#87

Post by simonbarker87 »

leesalminen wrote: post #84
Nadya wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Basically an open and shut case too. Assuming they were smart enough to "correct" the mistake it may not be a Tier 4 ($50,000+) violation, but instead a Tier 3 violation ($10,000 - $50,000 per violation) of willful neglect. I'm not sure if each violation above would be considered a single large violation or multiple small violations ( 1 violation vs…

$20,000 is nothing for litigation these days. Most advise planning for a minimum of $50,000 or $100,000 to fight something out with a judge.

Serious question that I feel I already know the answer to but, how do people afford to defend themselves if the costs are that high?!

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#88

Post by dominotw »

I am suprised zocdoc even allowed negative reviews. They rejected my slightly negative review. I think reviews have to to be approved by the doctors themselves to be posted on zocdoc since doctor knew what I wrote( without it being published) and hounded me to resubmit a positive review.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#89

Post by pseudolus »

Apparently (and per the terms of the stipulation electronically filed) the parties were close to settling and in the interim she agreed to take down her reviews that had been posted during the pendency of the action and not make any more "disparaging" statements. I'm guessing the settlement talks fell through. The issues are, unsurprisingly, not as black and white as the original story makes out.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#90

Post by pasbesoin »

$20,000 as an opener.

Civil as well as criminal proceedings. I worry it's more about the money you have to spend, especially when this differs significantly between the opposing sides, than justice.

And, charging $1300 a visit, that doctor's going to have the spend.

Maybe, in this case, the chance of media coverage will produce a settlement before things hit the stratosphere.

At the same time, going onto social media and using words like "crook", etc. is... not the best approach. Stick to facts and more neutral language, and let the reader draw their own conclusion.

But then again, more and more often, any criticism seems to provoke nuclear escalation. Not to mention the pre-emptive strike of non-disparagement language in service contracts.

Ours is called a "knowledge economy". But a lot of self-serving interests are bent on shutting down the knowledge.

P.S. If medical records were shared, state licensing should be looking at pulling the doctor's license.

There's a purpose to regulation, that includes shutting down the most egregious behavior.

Also, prosecutors should be investigating medical and insurance fraud.

Back with the wind up of our "war on terror", a lot of law enforcement resources got directed away from domestic crime including white-collar crime, to chasing needles in the ever-bigger haystack that was being built.

Even a rich society faces limits to its resources. Especially when there are arguments and initiatives to reduce them. (The "tyranny of big government" -- unless it's law enforcement and the military, or is that law enforcement as the military?)

In part, current domestic problems are exacerbated by the pressure and actions to focus our resources abroad. And not in "economic aid", but in power politics.

No one's been tending the shop. And the worst and pushiest have been taking advantage.

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