As a valued stakeholder in this patient-based community, I feel you have a right to know about actions that affect this online community. I am writing to inform you that Dr. James DeYarman has filed a lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court against me and this community.

As some of you may recall, I suspended Dr. DeYarman´s membership in the Coalition and his recommendation in March of 2007 because, in my opinion, I had reason to be concerned about his process, surgical technique and patient results.

Much of the information I gathered regarding the DeYarman Medical Group was provided to me privately. However, some of Dr. DeYarman´s patients posted what they felt were disappointing results. Some complained of poor growth, while one in particular showed what he believed to be inferior closure and suturing in his donor area.

Due to these ongoing and unresolved concerns, I'm unwilling to promote Dr. James DeYarman or the DeYarman Medical Group. Dr. DeYarman has chosen to sue me and this community for the loss of business that he claims has ensued since he was suspended. He has demanded that I remove the negative forum postings regarding his process and patient results and reinstate him into the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

I will not compromise the integrity of this forum or the high standards set for Coalition membership by agreeing to Dr. DeYarman’s demands. This community’s existence depends upon the free exchange of information and your trust that we provide you with the uncensored truth.

The freedom of expression that we all enjoy on this forum is not free. This is not the first lawsuit of this kind and it will not be the last.

However, I assure you that I will never compromise the high standards we have established for the recommended physicians. We will fight this battle in court, where I believe we will prevail once the facts are scrutinized by a jury.

I intend to keep you informed of this matter in the coming weeks and months. I welcome your opinions, input and comments.

Onwards and Upwards,

Pat Hennessey, Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center

I often wondered about the liability you assume in this type of open forum. That is troubling news to say the least. Your stance on this issue is commendable and honorable to say the least.

I was completely unaware of previous law suits against this forum by doctors. Pat your community has helped me a TREMENDOUS amount as I know it has helped so many across the globe. I truly value this community and the integrity with which you have continually chosen to run it. Surely your strong and unwavering stance on this case should put even the most skeptical and questioning minds at ease.

Im glad that you have gone public and informed the entire community about this case. It demonstrates both the integrity of you as the creator of this forum, but also in my opinion it should serve as a warning to anyone considering Dr. DeYarman as it demonstrates his reluctance to address the concerns of his unsatisfied patients and his ungentlemanly and bullying tactics. An ethical and skilled ht doctor should have as his first concern his patients who are less than satisfied with their results; he would address those concerns and ensure his work was on par w/the rest of the doctors recommended on this forum. On the contrary, his course of resolution is to bully you and this community in the courts as it appears his only concern is losing business and not taking pride in his work.

As long as you did not publicly bash him on here
(defamation of character etc..) I do not see the basis of a law suit for being banned from a message board?
All you have to do is show evidence of his poor work in court and he is toast
Good luck either way man

Pat,

If it were not for this forum, for your input, information and integrity, and the integrity and ongoing support of Falceros and other members of this community, I would never have found the VITAL research I needed to spend my precious savings and incur hefty debt on my first HT a week ago with Dr. Bernstein in NYC.

Not only do I trust the information on this site completely (because it is so open), but I also feel a real sense of belonging to a band of people, men and women, who are all in very important stages of their lives with the issue of hair loss.

Thank you for the opportunity this site, and the web blog site, have afforded so many of us.

Keep the energy and momentum going through the legal ordeal.

And let the facts speak for themselves. Otherwise, we'd still have a Bosley Medical out there hacking up innocent, uninformed patients.

Best to you and yours,

Fernando

"agentHarley"

Physicians who have not met or no longer meet our high level of recommendation standards have often and long attacked our patient based community.

In cases like this, sometimes those attacks turns into a legal threat and must be battled in court.

Fighting this battle comes at a high cost and is far from free. Though it would be so much easier to give into the demands imposed upon us and reinstate Dr. DeYarman into the Coalition and remove all negative posts about him, this would compromise the very nature and integrity of this patient based community and our high level of physician recommendation standards.

Our purpose has long been and remains to protect and maintain the integrity of this community by recommending only physicians who we believe are performing state of the art hair transplantation. We will not be bullied into compromising our standards and we will not go quietly without a fight to preserve the foundation and trust of this community.

Thanks to Pat for his high moral standards and continually fighting the good fight on behalf of patients and quality physicians who truly deserve to be recommended here. I'm honored to be partnered with him and will certainly continue to fight the good fight by his side as the Associate Publisher.

Thank you Pat for bringing this to the public's attention.

Bill Seemiller (Falceros)

Stick to your guns. I think Dr. DeYarman is making a mistake trying to settle things this way.

He will not come out of it clean, maybe he has deep pockets for this court crap.

Pat, I am sure you can find a Lawyer out there who has ugly old-style plugs. My guess is that he would take the case Pro-Bono for you.

Keep up the fight for the highest standards!

quote:

Our purpose has long been and remains to protect and maintain the integrity of this community by recommending only physicians who we believe are performing state of the art hair transplantation. We will not be bullied into compromising our standards and we will not go quietly without a fight to preserve the foundation and trust of this community.

Well said Falceros - All best Pat!!

Best wishes in combating the (frivalous) lawsuit. Thankfully you just so happen to have truth, rationale, and justice in your side!

Pat, Be sure to keep us posted, and continue the fight for everyone's freedom!!!

I appreciate everyone's support and encouragement. We all have a strong commitment to making sure that this community continues to be a place where patients can share their real experiences without censorship or intimidation.

We do have a solid law firm representing us. We have recently filed our response and request to have the case dismissed on multiple grounds. Considerable time was spent to make our response thorough and compelling.

While our attorney does not have bad hair plugs, perhaps the judge will :-) But plugs aside, all that is really needed is some common sense to see this lawsuit for what it really is.

Since this matter is pending in court our attorney is reluctant to have me publicly comment on the specifics. However, I will continue to keep the members of this community posted on our progress.

Of course, your ideas and input are always welcome.

Onwards and Upwards, Pat

Thanks for the info Pat. Look forward to hearing the results.

If Dr. Deyarman intends on staying in the HT business it seems to me that he should focus his attention on improving his result rather than filing lawsuits. I think this forum would welcome seeing quality results from him as with any doctor. If he's not able to produce superior results than it is only beneficial to potential HT patients that he does not remain in business.

It's almost like a restaurant filing a lawsuit against the health department for recieving a bad rating grade due to uncleanliness. The public has a right to be informed. RIDICULOUS lawsuit IMO!

It's nice to see someone standing up to lawsuits. As a former member of the Hair Loss Advances forum, I was disappointed to find out they decided to call it quits. I guess there was just too much outside pressure. I have found most of the forums to be heavily moderated in the doctors favor, preventing the free flow of information. This is very bad for the consumer, but great for the docs. Hopefully I will find complete and honest information on this site.

This is absolutely wonderful that a good legal defense is being prepared. I'm behind you 100%. Its imperative that a thorough and repeated analysis of a doctors ability be examined, and to be honest, I visited his webpage and the first thing I saw on it was a girl in a bikini.
Thats the first red flag.

Either way, let this play out in the courtroom, when you have the responsibility of keeping people from screwing up their lives it goes beyond some doctors feelings getting hurt.

How does dropping someone from a coalition be considered defamation of character? There was no harmful intent on dropping him, other than not meeting standards.

That's pretty easy to prove on its own merit.

quote:

Originally posted by Topcat611:
It's nice to see someone standing up to lawsuits. As a former member of the Hair Loss Advances forum, I was disappointed to find out they decided to call it quits. I guess there was just too much outside pressure. I have found most of the forums to be heavily moderated in the doctors favor, preventing the free flow of information. This is very bad for the consumer, but great for the docs. Hopefully I will find complete and honest information on this site.

Topcat and all, I spoke with EH and some of the posts went beyond hair related issues... and offered no benefit to anyone, so he pulled the plug preemptively in order to re-evaluate the way the site is run/moderated at this time. The tone of the forum was getting too personal about non-hair related issues. I don't know if the site is coming back up, but, I also do not believe that it is 100% shut down forever as of now. For now, we should take a wait and see approach.

In regards to the lawsuit by Dr. DeYarman, hopefully everything is resolved to the satisfaction of all.

Jason

bspot ,
i'm really pleased to hear that - i do so hope that site comes back online .
and pat - good luck and fight him all the way !
FTC

Guys,

I had surgery with Deyarman (picture of me 5.5 months after surgery is attached).

Kinda strange that you are making public of a legal issue. I wouldn't tell the world if I got sued. It's embarrassing for all parties and people wonder if there's something shady about the person suing and the person being sued. No one wins and it burns bridges.

Should he have sued? I don't know because I don't know the details. I do know that people sue because they feel wronged.

I care about this topic because I defend people that have provided me with a good service.

Matt

Matt_Holiday_Party.jpg (55 Kb, 173 downloads)

Matt,

I'm glad to see that you have apparently achieved a great result. Helping people get great results is what this community is all about.

I can understand and appreciate your willingness to come to your doctor's defense. I know that in early June of last year you reported on this forum that you had just had surgery with Dr. DeYarman even though you were aware of some of the concerns that his patients had posted on this forum. I see that you also posted your before photo on this forum. I'm glad that it seems to have worked out for you.

In the past I do believe that Dr. DeYarman did quality follicular unit work and that was why he was recommended on this community prior to March of 2007. I know that some of Dr. DeYarman's former medical technicians also felt that way until they lost confidence in the clinic and left.

Based on multiple reports and my observations, I also lost confidence in the DeYarman Medical Group and I discontinued Dr. DeYarman's recommendation and his membership in the Coalition in March of 2007. Knowing what I knew, I could not in good conscious continue to offer his services to the members of this community. This continues to be the case.

Since Dr. DeYarman's lawsuit impacts this entire patient based community I also had a duty to inform the members of this community, which collectively decides which doctors are chosen for recommendation now and in the future.

I did not choose to make this a public issue. Dr. DeYarman made it a matter of public record when he sued me and this community in San Diego court, which is open public record.

Dr. DeYarman is welcome to prove me wrong any time he wants on this forum. He is free to respond to this topic/issue and post examples of his recent patient results.

I know that me and this community have nothing to hide. Once all the details are known in court and on this public forum I trust that my decision to suspend Dr. DeYarman will be clearly justified.

Best wishes, Pat

"Kinda strange that you are making public of a legal issue."

It's not strange in the slightest; mostly because it already has been a public issue...the moment Deyarman decided to sue Pat and this community.

It's embarrassing for all parties

Only the party who is in the wrong; and time will tell who that is. Until then, objectively, this really isn't embarassing for anyone.

No one wins and it burns bridges.

Either this community's stance will be upheld, and a frivalous lawsuit will be dropped, in which case the community wins the right to remain a free, objective source to the hair transplant industry; or, Deyarman's position will be upheld, in which case the Speech Police will swoop on in and wipe out any trace of information and testimony that reveals negativity towards Deyarman.

As for "burning bridges" -- that is generally what happens when you initiate a lawsuit. Defending oneself in the face of legal action is just that -- defense.

I do know that people sue because they feel wronged.

People also sue when they are desperate; they also often sue out of greed; and, within this business, it is not in the least bit uncommon for negligent, inferior doctors to create patently frivalous lawsuits.

As mentioned, time will tell. At any rate, it's great that you're satisfied with your Deyarman experience....just make sure you remain objective, though I understand the sentiment of coming to the aid of someone who has done one a good deed.

Hi Matt,

I think this forum would welcome Dr. DeYarman and his patients to post high quality before and after photos of his HT results. If his results are CONSISTENTLY EXCELLENT then I would imagine he could earn his way back as a coalition doctor. I for one commend Pat, Falc and this forum for only recommending doctors who do consistently provide superior results. I'm also sure you wouldn't want to be a patient who recieved a sub par HT because of a doctors lack of consistent superior results. As an anology, if you have a professional athlete who used to perform well or occasionally performs well, would they be someone who would be commanding the reputation as a current elite athlete.

From your picture I think your HT looks great, but it is from afar an does not provided much detail. If you look at many of the results posted on this forum by patients and doctors you'll find very candid, detailed before and after photos of hairlines, donar area ect. I think everyone here would love to have you do the same and if Dr. DeYarman's results were consistently excellent I think he'd have as many reccomendations as the others.

I think it's commendable for you to support a doctor you has provided you with great results and service but I think you can also respect the big picture of what I believe this forum tries to accomplish.

Thx

quote:

It's embarrassing for all parties and people wonder if there's something shady about the person suing and the person being sued.

Quite the contrary in this specific set of circumstances. People have accused this forum, and Pat out personally, for losing all sense of objectivity w/respect to doctors skills and the results they are achieving for their patients BECAUSE Pat requires the doctors to pay a fee for being recommended on this forum. This case in particular should put those skeptics minds at ease, for how much easier would it have been for Pat to simply allow this doctor to continue paying him to remain a Coalition Doctor recommended on this site, and quietly and privately brush this under the table? No one would be the wiser (?)...
-INSTEAD-
Pat chose to take the moral high ground and stand for what the purpose of what he stated the forum was intended for, that is:
PROVIDING QUALITY SURGEONS AND REAL LIFE REVIEWS TO REAL PROSPECTIVE PATIENTS
Not only is Pat losing money by discontinuing DeYarman's membership to the coalition;
-BUT-
he is spending money out of his pocket for the legal fees to defend the rights of the members of this forum and the integrity w/which it is run. Very commendable in my opinion.
Im glad that *you* were satisfied w/your results, but you have to understand most of us who come to this forum are looking for "The Best of The Best"---which is very difficult to find, ESPECIALLY to find an objective and *honest* real live patients opinions of someone in this industry. Before I found this site, I was torn by the subject of ht's. How do you know which doc to trust?