Quackbusters in BIG Court trouble...

[Charlotte Gilruth]

Quackbusters in BIG Court trouble...

Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen

January 21, 2003

The bell is tolling for the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF),
it's president Robert S. Baratz, it's vice-president de-licensed MD Stephen
Barrett (quackwatch.com), and the rest of the board members. Maybe even the
membership. They are in the final days in a California Appeals Court, and it
doesn't look good for them.

Last year the NCAHF organization name was used, without permission of the
NCAHF board, by Baratz and Barrett, to sue approximately 43 defendants, all
"Alternative Medicine" practitioners, or companies. Baratz and Barrett, who
were trying to generate "expert witness" fees for themselves, were claiming
that "since Alternative Medicine had never been scientifically proven - it
was health fraud." They were laughed out of court, and out of California -
with one exception - one California Superior Court Judge ordered a case
dismissal based on California's anti-SLAPP law.

SLAPP means Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and California
has made a law AGAINST that activity -awarding attorney's fees to the
victim.

The "victim" in this one case, was a group of homeopathic product
manufacturers who banded together to defend their cases in common. Their
two-fold strategy, (1) to move the case into a "complex litigation" court
designed to handle highly technical issues, and (2) to tag the plaintiff
with the court and attorney fees in an anti-SLAPP motion. It worked.

In the final days of the case, a couple issues will have to be decided (1)
Who pays? (2) How much will they pay?

What The NCAHF, it's board members, and Barrett and Baratz REALLY have to
worry about is question # 2... For, the homeopathic manufacturers, unlike
the quackbusters, did their legal homework up front, and marched into court
with 13 inches of legal documentation. The quackbusters came in with bull
droppings.

The legal question is "Will the quackbusters get tagged for the full cost
of the up front legal strategy , AND the cost of appeal?"

I estimate the "up-front" at $500,000, and the Appeal at another $200,000.
Since the decision to make the NCAHF the plaintiff in these cases was made
by Baratz and Barrett without approval of the NCAHF, I think Barrett and
Baratz, as well as the NCAHF, the rest of the board, et al, are going pay -
and pay big.

Anybody want to buy quackwatch.com, Or the NCAHF? A house in Pennsylvania?
A house in Massachusetts?

Tim Bolen - Consumer Advocate
This "Millions of Health Freedom Fighters - Newsletter" is about the battle
between "Health and Medicine" on Planet Earth. Tim Bolen is an op/ed writer
with extensive knowledge of the activities of a subversive organization
calling itself the "quackbusters," and that organization's attempts to
suppress, and discredit, any, and all health modalities that compete with
the allopathic (MD) paradigm for consumer health dollars. The focus of the
newsletter is on the ongoing activities, battles, politics, and the
victories won by members of the "Health Freedom Movement" against the
"quackbusters" It details "who the quackbusters are, what they are, where
they are operating, when they appear, and how they operate - and how easy it
is to beat them..."

For background information on the "Battle between Health and Medicine" go
to: http://www.savedrclark.net/by_whom2.ht
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