Washington plastic surgeon made people signal ‘illegal’ NDAs: lawsuit

Washington state’s top cop is suing a distinguished Seattle-primarily based plastic surgeon more than the doctor’s alleged use of fake testimonials and unlawful patient non-disclosure agreements to inflate his plastic surgical treatment businesses’ on the net rankings, in accordance to a federal lawsuit submitted last week. 

Dr. Javad Sajan, who owns Allure Esthetic, directed his enterprise to intimidate sufferers into eradicating destructive critiques and requested his workforce to post phony positive assessments, Washington Attorney Common Bob Ferguson claimed in a news launch. 

According to the attorney normal, from 2017 to March 2022:

• Attract expected people to signal pre-support non-disclosure agreements that expected them to contact the enterprise right with any concerns as an alternative of creating a detrimental on line critique.
• Any critique beneath four stars was deemed a destructive critique. 
• In an early edition of the NDA, sufferers who refused to take down a adverse assessment could pay “monetary damages” to Attract for any losses, and also agreed to waive their privacy rights underneath the Overall health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to enable Allure to answer to the assessment with individual health and fitness data. 

Allure also offered patients funds or free of charge solutions for taking down bad opinions, AG claims:

• If a affected person acknowledged the give, Allure would make them signal a “post-service” NDA obligating them to take out the assessment and prohibiting them from putting up foreseeable future detrimental testimonials with the risk of a $250,000 good.
• Additional than 10,000 sufferers signed NDAs from 2017 to 2022, according to the lawsuit. 
• As a final vacation resort, Allure threatened to sue clients for violating the NDA’s, which point out attorney’s named “unlawful,” and “unenforceable.”