Overview
Steptoe’s success for a lawsuit brought by two prominent doctors over an article on a website called “Quackwatch” was covered by the Associated Press in an article titled “Judge Rejects Doctors’ Lawsuit Against Quackwatch Website.”
On August 24, US District Judge Paul Gardephe dismissed a defamation complaint brought by the doctors, who practice “anti-aging” medicine, over an article on a nonprofit consumer advocacy website called “Quackwatch” reporting that they had agreed to pay fines to the Illinois licensing authorities for improperly using the term “M.D.” after their names. The doctors have medical degrees from a school in Belize that does not qualify for the M.D. designation in Illinois. Judge Gardephe found that, to the extent the article’s placement on a website called “Quackwatch” would imply the doctors are “quacks,” the doctors had not shown that the implication was false.
The defendant was represented pro bono by Steptoe New York partner Charles Michael and associate Michael Keough.
The full article can be read at the Associated Press. Read more on the opinion at Steptoe’s SDNY Blog.
