Judge adjusts "prepaid visits" scam « Thread Started on Mar 1, 2009, 12:28pm »
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Corte Madera chiropractor ordered to pay 2 patients more than $7,000 Richard Halstead Posted: 02/28/2009 05:44:17 PM PST
Donald Harte, a Corte Madera chiropractor, has been ordered to pay two of his former patients a total of more than $7,000 after they took him to small claims court alleging he used
Commissioner Harvey Goldfine, who presided over the small claims proceeding in Marin County Superior court on Jan. 30, took several weeks to weigh the evidence before issuing his decision on Feb. 19.
"I think he was very clear," Gertrude West, one of the patients, said of Goldfine's decision.
West, 76, of Larkspur said
The other former patient, Victoria Pollock-Grasso of Tiburon, objected to Harte charging her a $559 administrative fee when she decided to stop receiving adjustments from him. Grasso said she stopped seeing Harte because an orthopedist she went to for a second opinion informed her she had degenerative disc disease in her cervical spine and that Harte's manipulation of her neck could cause her to have a stroke.
Harte could not be reached for comment on the court's decision. He has 30 days in which to request that the case be heard again by a different judicial officer.
West said that at Harte's urging she prepaid for 100 chiropractic visits in hopes of easing the pain in her arthritic knees. A surgical partial replacement of one knee in 2005 had not improved her condition.
West said she was drawn to Harte by one of his printed ads. In the ad, Harte stated that patients had come to him with a long list of symptoms: "Insomnia, anxiety, migraines, depression, fibromyalgia, hormonal issues, heart conditions, arthritis, GERD, digestive problems, low thyroid, dizziness, asthma, ADD, rotator cuff, urinary problems, carpal tunnel, sinus problems, knee and hip pain, even bone on bone - just to name a few."
The California Board of Chiropractic Examiners, which regulates chiropractors in California, notified Harte in 2004 that a similar ad violated state regulations and ordered him to stop using it.
Harte responded by launching a counterattack against the board's enforcement officers, asserting the board was persecuting him and other "straight" chiropractors who adhere to the beliefs of chiropractic founder Daniel David Palmer.
Goldfine, who presided over the small claims proceeding in Marin County Superior court, wrote in his decision "... that the Court finds defendant improperly misled and/or induced plaintiff into signing up for 100 chiropractic treatments. ..."
Harte argued in court that he shouldn't have to return West's money because the contract she signed required her to strictly adhere to a treatment schedule and also entitled him to retain 10 percent of the advanced payment to cover administrative costs.
Goldfine, however, rejected both of these arguments.
"The Court also finds the provision within defendant's contract that plaintiff was required to adhere to the treatment schedule in order to obtain a partial refund of any unused portion of her advanced payment was an unconscionable provision..." Goldfine wrote in his decision.
As for the 10 percent administrative fee, which was also the basis for Grasso's claim, Goldfine wrote,
Goldfine also said that a clause in the contracts signed by both West and Grasso that required them to submit to binding arbitration to resolve any dispute with Harte fails to comply with California law and "... would have been unenforceable in any event" - even though Harte did not raise this issue during the hearing.
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com.
Yeah right. The man who singlehandedly killed SubluxationBearPig is a loser.
Joined: Feb 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 200
Re: Judge adjusts "prepaid visits" scam « Reply #3 on Mar 1, 2009, 1:44pm »
No prob. I just wanted to see if there were comments to read. I thought it would be entertaining and...
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This asshead tried to corral me into prepaying for visits with hard sell. I told him to **** up a rope.
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They are frauds. At best they temporarily lift the pain from your body by doing ongoing damage while lifting the money from your wallet. I had one clown start treatment on me and she x-rayed me like a piece of luggage. Later when I had to have an x-ray of an injury the real doctor asked me of I had any previous x-rays for comparison. I retrieved the chiropractor x-rays and was told and shown why they were useless garbage.
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I'm was in Chiropractic School and dropped out. I mainly dropped out because it was a joke and the theory of subluxation has never been proven. I think Chiropractors are as useful as physical therapists, or most Psychologists, but fair is fair:
1. What this joker did is completely legal.
2. The small claims judge did the politically correct thing; this case needs to be appealed. The Chiro. is a jerk, but he did not break the current law.
3. I thought judges were suppose to rule by law, not their hearts?
4. The state of California need to outlaw Chiropractic. This judge did not do his Chiropractic homework. If he did--he would realize the Chiropractor did nothing wrong legally, but was morally repugnant.
5. I've heard horror stories about Psychiatrists and plastic surgeons, and it's difficult to find an honest dentist, but they go unnoticed.
6. Note to the Judge: Chiropractic is not a science and there are no real legal guidelines on the practice of it. It's time to stamp out Chiropractic and close down the schools, or grant them the same privileges as a Physical Therapist.
7. People--remember the saying "Caveat emptor". I feel sorry for the naive patients(I was one), and some of the "well meaning" Chiros. By the way--most body pains will go away by themselves. I had a theory in school and still hold it to this day.
The theory is stress(deep seated-sometimes)cause the arterioles to constrict: which causes all the pain. God Bless and goodbye.
...there are more but I don't think I need to post them all. Maybe I will log in and say something.
Re: Judge adjusts "prepaid visits" scam « Reply #5 on Jun 6, 2009, 2:08am »
I have experiance with this type of practice. It is montly automatic payments or pay in full. If you try to cancel after 25-30 visits you will find out that you have nice balance to pay...Office is scripted from the moment you walk in the office till the end of your exam( wich is another sad story...) I can't be part of this anymore because the way the office is run and patients are treated makes me sick and keeps me awake at night...I am soooo sick and tired i can't describe. I have urge to slap the s... out the dr on the daily basis... I will be back to vent some more....
Re: Judge adjusts "prepaid visits" scam « Reply #6 on Jun 24, 2009, 6:34pm »
i saw this article online, i think "dantes" was commenting on there too (good job). i worked for someone like this and like "drama" was kept up at night thinking about what i was doing. i realized these 6 months of care at 3 times per week are based on one thing: a sucker is born every minute. we would sign up about 1-2 people out of 10 potentials. i didnt however felt like slapping the dr, more like punching him! i quit after 6 weeks. just heard the other day that he went bankrupt, actually he started to decline right after i left. thank goodness i didnt buy the practice as planned.
who the hell invented these stupid programs anyway?
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