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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

#201

Post by [deleted] »

alexbanks wrote: post #191
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…

You seem like you know what you're talking about. A few years ago, I got a Facebook message from a girl that lived in my town. She said something like "This is really weird, but did you have shoulder surgery by X doctor last October? If so, that surgeon just did my knee and after my rehab told me that she thought you and I would be a good match. Would you want to grab dinner sometime?" I was really confused. Wasn't t…

[deleted]

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

#202

Post by xapata »

gamblor956 wrote: post #175
leesalminen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

Former trial attorney here...Would really like to know the source of those claims. $20k would cover most civil litigation cases not involving serious injury or death. $100k would cover pretty much any civil or criminal action. Beyond that, you'd have to be employing some extremely expensive specialists. And that assumes that the lawyer isn't handling the case on contingency. Generally, the reason people overestimate…

If lawyers are like programmers, the fees can easily be 10x different from one to another. I'll bet there are some $50/hr lawyers and some $5,000/hr lawyers.

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

#203

Post by FireBeyond »

reaperducer wrote: post #145
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…

>Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! I don't know where you get US$1k for a regular exam, but that is wrong. My doctor, for example, charges a base (list/MSRP/whatever) rate of $120-$180 for a regular exam. The "negotiated" rate with the insurance company is $80. The amount I pay, as a patient, is $10. If you don't have insurance (for a while I didn't), he charges…

> The "negotiated" rate with the insurance company is $80.

> The amount I pay, as a patient, is $10.

This is Shkreli math. "Oh, insurance companies pay larger amounts, most people will get this drug for a $10 copay!"

Oh yes, the insurance companies, those philanthropists magicking money out of ... somewhere other than your pocket, be it directly or indirectly.

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

#204

Post by jumelles »

amelius wrote: post #127
simonbarker87 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?!

And another question: why is the market failing here?

This is the market working; the market itself is thus a problem too.

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

#205

Post by poulsbohemian »

gamblor956 wrote: post #175
leesalminen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

Former trial attorney here...Would really like to know the source of those claims. $20k would cover most civil litigation cases not involving serious injury or death. $100k would cover pretty much any civil or criminal action. Beyond that, you'd have to be employing some extremely expensive specialists. And that assumes that the lawyer isn't handling the case on contingency. Generally, the reason people overestimate…

My divorce should have been an open/shut deal and never went to trial - still cost me > $12,000. I have another pending business lawsuit that I fully expect to cost ~$10,000 for what should be open/shut contract dispute. Lawyers are really good at wasting time while pretending to be doing something meaningful, and as a lay-person I have little recourse other than to play "Go fish!" and try to find another lawyer. So, $20K for anything of any substance doesn't surprise me.

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

#206

Post by deaddodo »

pliftkl wrote: post #139

A better headline might read "I wrote a review on Yelp in which I accused a doctor of committing insurance fraud on other patients that I had no actual knowledge of, and it made my life a nightmare". Courts have established that you can write negative reviews and that they fall well within rights to freedom of speech. She isn't being sued for giving the guy a one-star review and saying "This place sucks". There's one…

It also seems like this is a go-to tactic of hers. If you check here:

https://www.yellowpages.com/user/503859115/reviews

2014 review by one "Michelle L" of New York, NY. Starts with the exact same byline: "Very poor and crooked business practice.". Completely different practice. One with great reviews, for the most part.

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

#207

Post by megy »

grimgrin wrote: post #142
pliftkl wrote: post #139

A better headline might read "I wrote a review on Yelp in which I accused a doctor of committing insurance fraud on other patients that I had no actual knowledge of, and it made my life a nightmare". Courts have established that you can write negative reviews and that they fall well within rights to freedom of speech. She isn't being sued for giving the guy a one-star review and saying "This place sucks". There's one…

Hold on, you cut the title short. It'd end with a comma, then "and they posted my entire medical record, bills, insurance info, home address, etc"

Where did they post them though? They didn't post them to Yelp, you can't do that. They didn't post them on their own website. Where would they have posted them?

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

#208

Post by jessaustin »

titanomachy wrote: post #120
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #5

> “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … 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. That screams HIPAA violation, to me. The practice could (and should) be shut down over it.

Almost certainly the medical details were shared with the court, under seal, rather than posted to (for example) a public internet forum. At issue here is a disagreement over what services were performed, so it makes perfect sense that the court would require access to these documents. The reporting is incredibly one-sided here considering that the case is still unresolved. No doubt it will be damaging to the doctor'…

...which is why he is an idiot, with an idiot lawyer, for poking this hornets' nest. I say that even if we stipulate that his medical performance was exemplary. You don't fight with disgruntled customers. Spend a couple of minutes to see if you can easily satisfy them, and then forget the whole mess. Recover any products they received, give them their money back, and write off the service you performed. Period.

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

#209

Post by jessaustin »

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?

Physicians with their own practices might have low net worths, but they still have lots of assets to distribute in case of bankruptcy. IANAL, but a patient with a judgement would jump ahead of lots of creditors in such an event.

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

#210

Post by danso »

Google cache of the defendant's now-deleted GoFundMe page:

http://archive.is/xm4Ce

Has some more details, from her side, about the alleged HIPAA violation:

> As if that was not enough, in the very early stages of the lawsuit Dr. Joon Song had my medical record posted online in it's entirety. My complete medical record was available publicly on the internet. My mental health, the details of my body even though i never took the gown off, my bills, my insurance details, my photo, my name, my birthday, my address and my phone number. All of this was posted.

> Dr. Joon Song and his lawyers claim that because i shared the details of my positive blood test privately with the court (which i was forced to do to defend myself) I waived all rights to my privacy and there is no HIPPA violation and I am further a liar in stating that he had violated my HIPPA rights by publishing my records.

> In addition to posting my medical records Dr. Joon Song refuses any amendment request . His office staff says my medical record is locked because he is using it to sue me. He maintains false information on my record to date.

Sounds like she's claiming that her medical info was posted as documents pertaining to the lawsuit.

edit: Others have posted the case filing, in which you can find the exhibits and affidavits. The alleged posting of medical records was not to the public Internet, but as part of a case filing. And only after, the plaintiff asserts, the defendant posted her own records:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179942

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