Malpractice- Sexual Harassment at the Doctor's Office

[MichelleNYC]

Recently I went to an MRI/ X-ray specialist to get some pictures of my heart taken as per the request from my primary physician. While in the X-ray room, the technician, was touching me inapprioately and making uncomfortable sexual innuendos towards me- "sexually harassing me". My husband and I filed a complaint about him with the office, yet we dont feel this enough, this has been a pretty traumatic situation for me- and we already tried to find a lawyer to get involved yet no lawyer really wants to take on this type of case, a mean its simple yet it seems complicated for general practice lawyers- I mean the obvious route is to investigate some, if any of the past complaints or any other prior incidents that is in this technician's file- My question is how can we find a lawyer who would handle this type of case in NYC, and if worse comes to worse if we dont end up getting help from a lawyer how can we initiate a law suit ourselves?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Michelle -- why did the lawyers refrain from taking your case? Here is what I usually ask:

1) What extent are the damages and how much are they worth?

I have no doubt that this experience was traumatic and I am truly sorry to hear about it. However, I'd like to discuss the following:
If the harrassment constituted a number of comments and some inappropriate touching but nothing truly abusive, e.g. patting you on the butt, the dollar figure isn't that high. Do you want to pay for the lawyer's services and investigation? If not, then ask yourself why you don't want pay the fees. If the damages won't be that high, why would a lawyer take on a case that may result in just a few thousand dollars, at best, where the recovery is not even guaranteed for the amount of work that must be done? It's dollars and cents and while I'm very, very sorry it happened to you, this might not be the appropriate way to go about recovery. Perhaps it is filing a formal complain with the appropriate regulatory agency and also a small claims suit?

2) Proof issue -- witnesses and written proof.

Did the harrassment take place only in the privacy of his office or was it in the presence of third parties? Is there any written or recording data that could also support your claim? If it is only your word against his... that's a tough case to make. You may want to file a complaint with a regulatory agency. Have you talked to the American Medical Association?

 

[jmacgregor]

I totally agree with TheLaw Professor's first point about worth. IN regards to his second point, I can pretty accurately presume that you were in a dark, enclosed room with none other than the technician. In this case, you would have a hard time supporting your claim, as the Professor pointed out, it is only your word against his. Exactly how far do you want to take this? My advise would be to contact the department head of X-ray and schedule a meeting with the offender, the dept. head, you and your husband in an attempt to modify the behavior and professionalism of this individual so that is doesn't happen to others.