AOS Legal Update-April 19th, 2011 Hot

It’s been a busy month behind the scenes. As you may recall, in January the AOS transcribed its interview of VSP Chairman Tim Jankowski and President Rob Lynch and made that transcript available for our members to read. VSP claimed they didn’t know we would record the meeting or would provide our members a transcript, and said they would sue the AOS if we didn’t take the transcript off our website immediately. The AOS refused to be bullied by VSP, and instead initiated its own defensive lawsuit against VSP to prove it was entitled to publish the transcript. VSP responded by suing the AOS in Nevada. With both cases proceeding, AOS and VSP have been engaged in settlement discussions. The AOS, however, declined VSP’s most recent proposal and the settlement discussions have broken down because, among other things, the AOS will not agree to terms which would limit its rights or permit VSP to tell AOS what it can and can not do with the transcript.

The more important case is the AOS’ lawsuit against the American Board of Optometry for false and deceptive advertising. AOS claims, among other things, that the ABO is misleading the public by calling its program “board certification” and its doctors as being “board certified”, and seeks a court order that would prohibit the ABO from doing so. AOS also seeks an order prohibiting the ABO from claiming its process demonstrates that the doctor has training or competence beyond that of other similarly licensed optometrists. The ABO has challenged the AOS’ claims by filing a motion which asserts that it is not plausible that anyone could be misled by the ABO’s use of the label “board certified,” and by filing another motion which asserts that it changed the statements on its website, won’t put the old statements back, and so the case should be dismissed. The ABO and AOS have completed the briefing on the subject, and the AOS will post the pleadings (except for those portions filed under seal because they contain or refer to documents the ABO claims are confidential) in the Member Section on its website within the next few days. The motions are set for hearing on April 25, though decisions are not expected until this summer.
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