Medical Justice Services Inc. Now Offers Online Anti-Defamati...( GREENSBORO N.C. Aug. 4 /- Medical...),Health

GREENSBORO, N.C., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Justice Services, Inc., which has successfully helped physicians and dentists defend themselves against meritless medical malpractice lawsuits for the past six years, has introduced a new way for physicians and dentists to fight back against defamation on the World Wide Web.

The program, which prevents defamatory online postings about physicians on doctor rating sites and blogs, solves a problem that's exploded in the past year, according to Jeffrey Segal, M.D., founder and president of Medical Justice Services.

"In most circumstances in America, publishing something that's untrue and defamatory about someone else can be solved by filing a libel or slander lawsuit in civil court," said Dr. Segal. "But when a defamatory message about a doctor is spread to thousands or millions of people with the click of a mouse, physicians are generally left with no reliable recourse."

That's because physicians and dentists can't sue a Web site that hosts false and defamatory content about them, the way that they could sue a newspaper or broadcast station. In 1996, Congress passed the Communication Decency Act, immunizing Internet Service Providers from being sued for defamation.

But Medical Justice has a solution that works. It uses patient-friendly contract language to both prevent the posting of defamatory information before it occurs -- and provide physicians with an appropriate way to put a stop to it if it is posted online.

The program is free to physicians who become Medical Justice members, or is available separately for $495 for the first year and $350 each year thereafter.

Dr. Segal first developed the idea of using a contract to address defamation, after Medical Justice used contract language to successfully prevent its member physicians from being sued for frivolous reasons.

With Medical Justice's anti-defamation program, patients sign a contract of mutual privacy, in
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