Friday, April 23, 2010

Fulton v. Medical Board (Cal. Ct. App. - April 23, 2010)

It's bad enough when you lose an appeal in a published opinion. It's public, it's got your name in it, and it's forever.

But when your appeal is about your allegation that the California Medical Board shouldn't make public the information about your discipline (you resigned your medical license) and the events that led up to it (discipline by other states, malpractice judgment, etc.), because that's "harming your reputation" and hurting your business (you run a quasi-medical business and sign things "Dr." and "M.D."), the last thing you want is for the Court of Appeal to report in its published opinion all the things you're trying to keep hidden.

But that's exactly what the Court of Appeal does.

Call it irony. Call it justice. Call it whatever you'd like.

Regardless, that's got to be something that Dr. James E. Fulton isn't likely to appreciate.

Something to think about the next time you're thinking about filing one of these appeals. An appeal that says "You should keep X secret" may not only lose, but be itself counterproductive as well.