New York - A Midtown dentist faces a legal drilling for making her patients promise to zip their lips about her practice.
Stacy Makhnevich — who bills herself as the “Classical Singer Dentist of New York” — has been slapped with a unique class-action suit by a Maryland man who publicly accused her on the Internet of overcharging him for a filling.
Former New Yorker Robert Lee says Makhnevich demanded $100 in damages for every day his comment was up, and threatened to sue after he blasted her on the Web over the $4,766 procedure — which he says should have cost only $200.
“Avoid at all cost! Scamming their customers!” Lee wrote on Yelp.com and DoctorBase.com in August.
According to his Manhattan federal-court filing, Makhnevich claims the comments violated a “mutual agreement to maintain privacy” she made him sign before treating him for a severe toothache last year at her office on the 69th floor of the Chrysler Building.
The suit says the document “states that the patient waives any right to comment publicly on or evaluate defendants’ services.”
“To further stifle any public criticism of defendants, the agreement also states that the patient assigns to defendants all copyrights that may exist in written, after-the-fact criticisms or comments,” court papers say.
Lee — whose legal team includes lawyers from the Public Citizen watchdog group — says that his posts are “classic fair use” under copyright law.
He wants a judge to declare his “agreement” with Makhnevich — whose Web site says she has an album of “popular Italian and French opera arias” due out this month — null and void, and to block her from making anyone else sign it.
His suit also demands repayment of the cost of his filling, along with unspecified damages.
According to Public Citizen, the case “highlights a growing trend” of medical providers conditioning treatment on a contractual pledge not to criticize them online after the fact.
“What began as a case of a sore tooth is now showcasing an unconscionable practice in which doctors and dentists force patients to leave their constitutional rights at the office door,” said Paul Levy, the Public Citizen attorney representing Lee.
“If people are upset about their care, they have a First Amendment right to tell people about it — by going online and posting their thoughts on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter and the like.”
Public Citizen blamed the situation on the North Carolina company Medical Justice, which sells form contracts designed “to protect physicians from Internet defamation.”
“Medical Justice has been quoted as claiming that about 3,000 doctors and dentists use its products, including these forms,” according to Public Citizen, which says Lee’s suit “is believed to be the first over the provision restricting criticism.”
Makhnevich and her lawyer did not return calls for comment.
“We regret to see the lawsuit involving one our member dentists and a patient,” Medical Justice wrote in a statement.
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