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SALT LAKE CITY -- If you're unhappy with your doctor, even if you want to warn others about him or her, you'd better be careful about what you post on the internet.
In several cases around the country, doctors are turning around and suing people who've posted less than flattering things about them on various sites. The defendants claim they're simply trying to warn people away from having the same kind of experiences they had, but plaintiffs claim their comments are untrue and defamatory.
While many think they have a free-speech right to say what they want, civil rights attorneys like Brian Barnard say that only goes so far. Barnard said people do have the right to express their opinion.
"But when you start putting these adjectives in, or these descriptive phrases that go beyond that factual statement, you get into this gray area which could lead to a defamation lawsuit," Barnard said.
That means it's one thing to say you had a bad experience or that you were unhappy with the outcome; it's another to call a doctor, for example, incompetent.
"For the lay person to go on the internet and take a broadside against the doctor," said Barnard, "that's a very dangerous thing for this lay person to do."
Barnard said the truth is the best defense in a defamation case, but the burden of that proof falls on the defendant in such cases. He thinks very few people understand the limits of what they can say about other people on the internet.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
