THE COURT DEFENDED THE RIGHT OF PATIENTS TO SAY EVERYTHING THEY THINK ABOUT DOCTORS

The First Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction (Ruling of December 8, 2022 on the case № 88-29060/2022(2-1428/2019)) he defended the right of patients to say and write everything they think about doctors. An important condition is that the opinion must necessarily be expressed with the use of censorship vocabulary.

As follows from the news posted on the court's website, the patient left a negative review of the doctor's activities, after which he filed a lawsuit against the patient and the owner of the site for the protection of business reputation, and also demanded compensation for moral damage.

The courts of three instances refused to satisfy the claim, guided, among other things, by the results of linguistic expertise.

Despite the fact that the expert came to the conclusion that the respondent's review discredits the business reputation of the doctor, and the intention of the author of the review is to provide information-a review of the poor quality of medical services, the courts concluded that the content of the review is a subjective assessment of the respondent, which is why it cannot be checked for compliance reality.

At the same time, an important condition for the satisfaction of a claim for the protection of business reputation is the publication of clearly untrue information, which is why the plaintiff's claim was left without satisfaction.

Photo: Freepik