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November 23, 2009 | dlpmagazine.com
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Case against Lee Culp dismissed

Culp doesn’t have to go to court after all, but he wants to remind other CDTs that doesn’t mean it’s time to relax. Lab technicians still can be sued.

by Renee Knight, Senior Editor

Photo: Lee Culp, CDT

A little more than a week before his trial, Lee Culp, CDT, received some long-awaited good news: The case against him and his lab has been dismissed.

The judge issued his ruling on Friday—a day after Culp and his lawyers decided they weren’t going to show up to the Nov. 30 trial in New Jersey. Instead, they planned to issue a statement that Culp was choosing not to defend himself because they did not feel he was responsible for any wrong doing.

On Friday morning, Culp got the news that none of that mattered.

“The court ruled the lab does not have a duty to the patient, at least in this case, where he (Culp) was following the dentist’s prescription and there was no allegation he had not followed it,” said Shalom Stone, one of Culp’s lawyers. “He had no duty to the patient in respect to any complaint the patient had as to the doctor’s decisions.”

Why Culp almost had to go to trial

The case was a typical smile design case, Culp said. He made the crowns, but the patient and the dentist wanted them bigger. Culp worked with the dentist until the patient was happy with the length of the crowns. About a year later Culp received a letter informing him that he and the dentist were being sued. The patient claimed she sustained personal injuries to her mouth as a result of the work done.

“The case against the dentist is still going to trial, but without us,” Stone said.

How the decision came

Culp’s lawyers filed one final motion to have the case dismissed. These are difficult to win, Stone said, but in this case the court took a look at the evidence and decided there wasn’t enough to warrant a jury trial. The court made a legal decision that the lab does not have a duty to the patient based on the development of facts in the case and testimony. The court also found the plaintiff’s expert’s opinion that the lab was at least partly responsible for the plaintiff’s alleged injuries had no objective basis in the evidence. He would not have been allowed to testify even if the case against Culp had moved forward.

Culp’s reaction
After all the time and money Culp put into defending himself these last few years, he said he was relieved and speechless when he heard the news.

“I was almost in tears,” Culp said. “I was just kind of standing there thinking two years and this is finally over one week before the trial.”

Even though his case was dismissed, Culp said nobody is off the hook. Culp’s case may have set an important precedent, but any lab technician can still be sued and that can lead to years of headache and thousands of dollars in expenses.

Protect yourself

You can’t just sit back and relax, Culp said. There are ways to protect yourself in case you’re ever named as a defendant. Product and/or professional liability insurance can help cover your expenses and is something lab technicians should research to find what best fits their needs. Documentation is key and something that is easier to do with CAD/CAM technology and digital communication. Culp keeps all his work on a computer now, and that means he has 3D and 2D representation of every case he does—something he didn’t have with the case he was being sued over.

From now on, Culp plans to be as digital in his communications with dentists as possible and to move to a paperless lab. If dentists want to make changes, now they’ll have to do it electronically. And this not only protects lab technicians, but dentists and patients as well. 

“The relationship with our dentists is way too causal,” Culp said. “I don want to take the friendship and camaraderie away from it, but unfortunately we are in a business relationship. This wasn’t a dentist suing me; this was a patient. Communications have to be a lot more controlled. We are working in a medical environment and I think we need to communicate that way.”

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