May 2005

What's really behind the Masters Circle lawsuit?

by Dr. Larry Markson

On March 1, 2005 the Des Moines Register printed an attorney's claims in a lawsuit she brought against our organization, The Masters Circle. We intend to set the record straight.

There is a cynical saying that "no good deed goes unpunished." That is precisely the kind of thinking that went into the formulation of a class action suit that has been filed against The Masters Circle and its member chiropractors.

If you are disgusted by lawyers suing over spilled coffee, read on. What follows is an eye‑opening account of the way in which professional ethics can be twisted to appear sinister.

These are the facts:

One of our member chiropractors treated a young man.

These were the patient's complaints: "I complained about my back. It was painful to run. I did have headaches...when I was little, I got headaches a lot ... my back pain was bad, and my headaches were pretty bad too..."

The patient is clearly in trouble. If this is the basis of a lawsuit against a chiropractor, the chiropractor obviously didn't help, or worse actually hurt the patient, right?

Well, this is what the patient says in a sworn deposition about the chiropractor. "I felt relief after his first couple adjustments. My back got better; and I was able to, you know, function without it hurting. Movements didn't hurt it."

The patient was asked directly "And did your headaches also go away after treatment?" The patient responded, "After my adjustments, yup, my headaches and back pain went away."

Well for the "malpractice" lawyer that's as bad as it gets. Her "malpractice" victim admitted that, not only was he not hurt, "my headaches and back pain went away."

But in the days of multimillion dollar lawsuits for spilled coffee, there is a next step; when the going gets tough, some lawyers go shopping for a class action lawsuit.

She moved quickly to get some sort of class action filed before the President signed into law a new federal statute designed to stem the rising tide of class actions in state courts by moving class actions into federal court. At 4:29 p.m. on February 17, 2005, one minute before the courthouse closed on the day before the new class action lawsuit was to become law, the attorney faxed a new lawsuit to the courthouse; she called her new case a class action. Within a week, her failed "malpractice" suit had morphed into a desperate class action.

Instead of suing the chiropractor who had successfully treated her client, she was now suing him and the professional organization to which he belongs, an organization that teaches and encourages the highest level of professional ethics ‑‑ our organization, The Masters Circle.

We advise telling a patient up front that you can't expect your great results to remain without follow up. Not disclosing this fact would be like an orthodontist saying he would only need to put braces on your child adding, "We will worry about additional costs or any follow up treatment later."

The charges leveled in this lawsuit are not only false; they represent everything we are not. We teach our members to treat patients with the utmost professionalism, honesty and care, and to act consistently with accepted professional standards on case management. Numerous national and state leaders, college presidents and other influential chiropractors stand behind us because they know we practice what we preach‑‑ professional excellence.

Chiropractic is not voodoo. Longstanding misalignment in the spine cannot be corrected with one or two adjustments any more than it can be cued with chanting and incense. It is a gradual process. It is a proven process that the nation's largest insurance companies and the United States government are finally realizing the benefit of. We don't expect all MDs to "get it," just the best trained, most research based ones. Not only do we see referrals from these leading edge MDs every day, we treat them as patients as well.

We are confident this case will show that professionally conducted chiropractic care is beneficial and that The Masters Circle is about practicing ethically and consistently with the patient's best interests. The failed case that was dismissed by the plaintiff herself has already demonstrated that professionally conducted chiropractic care was beneficial to her son; our longstanding service to the profession without even a hint of impropriety likewise has already demonstrated that the Masters Circle is about practicing ethically and consistently with the patient's best interests. Once the truth is known, the claims in this suit will be shown to be utterly baseless, frivolous and malicious. We look forward to having our names cleared and our professional reputations restored.