Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in New York

my dentist is suing me for unpaid services. i have copies of all payments made, and i am 100% certain i DO NOT have an outstanding balance. i tried to show this to him, but he will not return my calls or even tell me what it is he feels i have an outstanding balance for. i've called him many times, and finally i emailed him to have a record for court, requesting something, anything, that would indicate what he wants. no response. I spent the entire day ( literally took me 12 hours) pulling EVERY single payment i've ever made within the last 7 years, and all payment made by insurance companies on my behalf. i printed copies of his rating online, and he seems to do this type of thing, offen. On the scheduled court date, he did not show up but sent a letter asking for the date to be adjourned, and the case was rescheduled. i'd like to file a counter claim. i am certain i do not have an outstanding balance, and this is becoming a huge waste of time. What are my options for a counter claim?


Asked on 5/31/12, 8:29 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Matthew Parham Western New York Law Center, Inc.

The strongest thing I can see is to seek reimbursement of costs and expenses incurred, for bringing a frivolous lawsuit, which are available under 22 NYCRR 130-1.1 if the suit was brought to harass or injure or was unnecessarily prolonged, after the dentist knew or should have know that there was no basis for the suit. Here you are limited to recovering court costs and expenses you actually incurred (i.e., not reimbursement for your time). CPLR 8303-a also provides for the award of costs and reasonable attorney�s fees (if you hired an attorney) for frivolous, bad faith, or harassing conduct.

There also may be a claim for something called "prima facie tort" which requires (1) intentional infliction of harm, (2) no justification, (3) you suffered monetary damages (ie again, not just inconvenience of loss of time), and (4) the conduct was otherwise lawful.

The situation you describe is similar to one where someone can claim "abuse of process" which requires (1) service of civil process, (2) you won the case, and (3) the civil process was used for an improper purpose outside the legitimate aims of a civil lawsuit. However, I am not seeing (3) here, as I am not seeing anything the dentist used the suit for other than trying to collect money from you, which is the purpose of a civil lawsuit. But if there are other facts that would support this element, it is a possibility.

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Answered on 6/02/12, 1:27 pm


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