Rip-Off Report #396699, Rip-Off Report #476896

In approximately June of 2008, Gaston & Gaston was retained by a woman named Paulette Hacker. At that time, Ms. Hacker was being sued by a plastic surgeon named Craig Alan Bittner. Bittner ran a liposculpture clinic in Beverly Hills and had “performed” surgery on Ms. Hacker in March of 2008. The word “performed” is inside quotes because allegedly it was not actually Bittner who did the surgery. Rather, he used physician assistants and untrained receptionists to perform the medical procedures.

Based on her horrible experience at Bittner’s clinic, including having the procedure partially performed by a receptionist, Ms. Hacker began speaking out against Bittner. Once he found out, Bittner filed a lawsuit against Ms. Hacker for defamation. In response, our firm filed a cross-complaint on behalf of Ms. Hacker alleging numerous causes of action, including battery, fraud, negligence, and medical malpractice. Bittner’s suit was eventually dismissed. In fact, his clinic was raided by the California Medical Board and his doors were permanently closed. Ms. Hacker’s suit against Bittner is ongoing.

The Rip-off Reports were clearly written by either Bittner or someone with ties to Bittner. This fact is demonstrated by the fact that the report is “signed” by a person named “Fat Paulette,” residing in Citrus Heights. Our client’s name is Paulette, and indeed she does live in Citrus Heights. Obviously, the report was not written by our client. She did, however, write a rebuttal (Consumer Comment #3) in which she gives a glowing review of our firm.

Obviously, the content of the both Reports is false and defamatory. It is our opinion that someone with an interest in the case thought that we would resign as counsel for Ms. Hacker if our firm was attacked with malicious lies. Perhaps the person’s thinking was that we would abandon Ms. Hacker and her case after deciding it was not worth the trouble and aggravation of tactics such as the Rip-Off Report postings. We did no such thing. To this day we continue to represent Ms. Hacker.

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