LASIK surgery left Dominic Morgan legally blind, according to a March 2007 Pennsylvania appellate →court opinion. Morgan, sued his doctors for malpractice. He also created a →Web site to inform the public of the risks of the surgery. Following settlement of his medical malpractice suit, the doctors sent Morgan a cease and desist letter demanding that he take down comments about them. Morgan agreed to take down libelous comments and edited the Web site. The doctors later sued him on claims of defamation, breach of contract and specific performance. A trial court judge in Pennsylvania found that Morgan had agreed not to mention the doctors on his site and that this agreement was an enforceable contract. In March 2007, a Pennsylvania appellate court reversed the ruling that would have muzzled Morgan. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court level to resolve the question of whether the updated and revised site contained libelous statements.
An Illinois LASIK surgery case, in which a former patient posted a Web site criticizing a surgery center and was sued for libel, ended with dismissal of the case.
Return to Rule 2.