Dental office sues former employee

A local dental centre has filed a lawsuit over social media comments from a former employee it argues are defamatory.

Dr. Dheeraj Mittal’s Greenwoods Dental Centre filed a statement of claim earlier this month in the Court of King’s Bench against the former employee, a Winnipeg woman, for comments she made online that it calls “categorically false, misleading and defamatory.”

It is at least the fourth defamation suit the clinic has launched since 2021, with others against former patients who made comments on social media or in online reviews that the centre argues are false and disparage its reputation. The other lawsuits remain before the court.

Greenwoods operates five dental offices in Winnipeg and four in British Columbia.

The new court filing says the defendant, who once worked in one of the Winnipeg offices, made the statements in response to comments on a Facebook post made by a local radio station on Feb. 19.

The radio station post referenced a separate lawsuit against the dental centre filed by a disabled man who alleges he had teeth removed without his consent.

One commenter made a statement suggesting Greenwoods “engages in billing practices whereby the (clinic) ‘maximizes’ its billing when not warranted,” the court filing says.

The former employee responded to that statement, saying it was “10,000” per cent the case with the clinic, specifically on non-insured health benefits program claims, the court papers says.

In another comment, the lawsuit says, the defendant claimed the centre “ran up crazy bills” on patients with coverage from the program, which Greenwoods also denied.

The program provides coverage for certain First Nations and Inuit people who aren’t otherwise covered through public or private insurance.

The dental centre denies that it bills the maximum allowable amount involving patients with non-insured health benefits coverage.

The same day, the former employee responded to another comment about how receipts are issued by Greenwoods, the court filing claims, which the dental centre said was incorrect.

In a third comment in response to the radio station post, the defendant is alleged to have said: “I guarantee you no dentist that works for that corporation would fix a rotten tooth for free,” the court papers say.

The dental centre calls that statement defamatory and untrue.

The former employee is also alleged to have commented on the radio station’s post, saying, “they never actually get in trouble. The owner thinks (it’s) funny when people sue or make claims.”

Greenwoods said that was defamatory.

“The plaintiff denies that it has never faced accountability or that its ownership holds the attitudes alleged … and further denies that it conducts itself in an unprofessional or dismissive manner toward legal claims,” reads the court filing.

The lawsuit says the centre sent a letter to the former employee the day after the posts, demanding she cease any “further wrongful and defamatory behaviour” and that she delete the posts.

She removed some of her comments, but not all of them, the court filing says.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a court order to the former employee to delete the comments and bar her from making further defamatory comments.

The former employee has not yet replied to the claim in court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca