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Flea Bites

Well I could’ve told you this was a stupid idea.

Dr. Robert P. Lindeman, a pediatrician, was a defendant in a medical malpractice suit. The plaintiffs’ 12-year-old son, Jaymes, had died back in 2002 from complications arising from his diabetes. The parents alleged that Lindeman failed to diagnose Jaymes’ diabetes during an exam and that the boy might not have died six weeks later if Dr. Lindeman had made the right diagnosis. So earlier this month, Dr. Lindeman was on the stand, being cross-examined by the family’s attorney, Elizabeth N. Mulvey. During the second day of testimony, Mulvey was questioning Dr. Lindeman about a pediatrics textbook when her questions suddenly went into an unexpected direction.

First, she asked him if he published a medical blog. Dr. Lindeman said he did. Mulvey then asked him if he was “Flea.” Lindeman said he was.

Lindeman settled the next day, apparently agreeing to pay a substantial amount of money to Jaymes’ parents.

So what’s this “Flea” business all about?

Well it turns out that Lindeman/Flea was blogging about the trial over on the DrFleaBlog, a blog which no longer has any content (a “flea” is apparently what surgeons refer to pediatricians-in-training as). He we apparently providing day-to-day details about the trial, mocking the plaintiffs and their lawyer, ranting and bitching about various issues, outlining his defense strategy (including advice given to him by a jury consultant about how to win over the jury) and even accusing some jury members of nodding off during the trial. Just by way of example - an early post nicknamed Mulvey (the plaintiffs’ attorney) “Carissa Lunt,” and wondered about whether she was a pillow biter.

Classy guy, that Dr. Lindeman (that’s our class-act to the right).

Mulvey apparently had a sense of humor about it, but did indicate that she was prepared to share Lindeman/Flea’s musings with the jury, which would appear to be what led to the next-day settlement.

So the moral of this story is: Don’t blog about your trial while you’re still in trial. Seems pretty obvious to me, but I guess it’s not so obvious to everyone….Maybe this should’ve been a “Common Sense Lesson” entry.

(Hat tip to Legal Antics)

Posted by Seth on June 1, 2007 | Comments (1)