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Q: list of law suits filed against AA and other 12 step programs ( Answered,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: list of law suits filed against AA and other 12 step programs
Category: Reference, Education and News > Education
Asked by: sparkie2-ga
List Price: $50.00
Posted: 04 Jan 2004 21:59 PST
Expires: 03 Feb 2004 21:59 PST
Question ID: 293206
please list the law suits filed against the 12-step, addiction aa, na etc.

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 05 Jan 2004 07:34 PST
Dear Sparkie, 

What do you mean by "filed against the 12-step..." - should I include
only lawsuits directed against AA/NA (in civil courts?), or also
appeals against States that deal with the question of forcing (by
court order) people to participate in these programmes (on the
premises of the Establishment Clause)?

From your other question I can understand that you're looking mostly
for "failures" of AA and the Twelve Steps programmes. Should the
lawsuits collected continue this line?

From my research thusfar, it seems that most (if not all) of the legal
cases are appeals against State authorities, as described before.

And another question - shall I find cases outside the United States,
would you be interested?
Answer  
Subject: Re: list of law suits filed against AA and other 12 step programs
Answered By: belindalevez-ga on 06 Jan 2004 01:34 PST
 
<Law suits filed against AA and other 12-step programs.

Stanton Peele reports on G. Douglas Talbott an advocate of the 12-step
approach. At least 30 people who have been through his treatment
program have committed suicide. In 1987, a jury awarded $1.3 million
to the widow of one of the deceased physicians against Ridgeview and
Dr. James W. Blevins, a staff psychiatrist, although a Superior Court
judge later set aside the verdict (Ricks, 1987). Other suits initiated
on behalf of the suicides were settled out of court (Durcanin, 1987).
http://www.morerevealed.com/resist/r_chap_6.htm
http://www.peele.net/debate/asam.html

1999 - Doctor misdiagnosed as an alcoholic and held against his will
for four months awarded  $1.3 million. Douglas Talbott was medical
director.
http://www.schaler.net/talbott.html


Baldwin Research Inc and the Hagaman Guest House.
$20,000,000 law suit against Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
According to this site, they started a ?Treatment doesn?t Work?
advertising campaign.  The company and program name were Tri-Key Group
Inc and the Tri-Key Program respectively. The defamation and
McCarthyism was so devastating that the name of the company was
changed to Baldwin as a means to survive. They say AA has been
stalling the case for two years. Baldwin allege that AA colluded with
the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse to put
them out of business. Part of the evidence against AA is the alleged
bullying of a 78 year old man who ended up in a mental ward with a
nervous breakdown who later died. They claim to have evidence that AA
uses government agencies to obstruct and crush competitors. In Mexico 
a competing company?s president was jailed.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:DJd32fYJh_QJ:www.aapubliccontroversy.com/ofaa/attorney.pdf+%22against+alcoholics+anonymous%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

1986 ? Bergen County prosecutor is looking into allegations of
physical abuse and unlawful restraint of teen-agers at KIDS of Bergen
County, a substance-abuse program in River Edge. The program was based
on the 12-steps. Miller Newton, the founder and director of the
program has had several suits filed against him. All were settled out
of court.
http://www.kidsofnorthjersey.com/71386.html

In 1990 a jury in Florida ordered Straight to pay Karen Norton $721,000 for abuse. 
In 2000 Reverend Doctor Miller Newton, Straight's former national
clinical director, and his psychiatric staff, settled out of court
with a female client for $4.5 million for abuses she claimed she
sustained at his Straight-like program called KIDS in New Jersey. Many
former clients have committed suicide.
In Viginia, Straight lost a $220,000 suit in federal court for holding
a man prisoner against his will.
http://www.thestraights.com/introduction.htm
1983 ? details of various suits filed against Straight.
http://www.thestraights.com/newton-abuse-at-straight.htm

Details of the case settled for $4.5 million.
http://www.kidsofnorthjersey.com/donald.html>


<Additional links:>

<UK - Vulnerable alcoholics seeking help for their addiction are being
subjected to sexual and other abuse at the hands of long-serving
volunteers from the world's largest alcohol support group. An internal
memorandum circulated to every Alcoholics Anonymous group in the
country reveals that volunteer members are increasingly being
investigated by police forces examining allegations of sexual abuse.>
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4036900,00.html>

<Domain name dispute.>
<http://www.janesguide.com/blogger/novmarch.html>

<German law suit - copyright dispute.>
<http://alcoholism.about.com/library/blmitch20.htm
http://alcoholism.about.com/library/blmitch21.htm
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_a4.html>


<Employment dispute ? case dismissed.>
<http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/decisions/288/288-582.txt>


<Search strategy:>

<against alcoholics anonymous">
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22against+alcoholics+anonymous%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>

<"12 step" "treatment program" "settled out of court">
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%2212+step%22+%22treatment+program%22+%22settled+out+of+court%22>

<"alcoholics anonymous" allegations>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22alcoholics+anonymous%22+allegations&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>



<Hope this helps.>
Comments  
Subject: Re: list of law suits filed against AA and other 12 step programs
From: politicalguru-ga on 13 Jan 2004 02:32 PST
 
Dear Sparkie, 

Since you expressed (in other questions) general interest in AA, you
might find the following books interesting:

A. W. Eister, Drawing Room Conversion (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1950); 

M. Maxwell, The Alcoholics Anonymous Experience (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984); 

The following articles describe certain aspects in the AA process: 

L. Blumberg, "The Ideology of a Therapeutic Social Movement," Journal
of Studies in Alcohol 38 (1977):2122-2143;

A. Greil and D. Rudy, "Conversion to the World View of Alcoholics
Anonymous," Qualitative Sociology 6(1983):5-28;

D. Rudy and A. Greil, "Taking the Pledge," Sociological Focus 20(1987):45-59.

See Richardson's entery "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS (AA)" to the
Encyclopedia of Religion and Society (William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor),
at <http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/AA.htm>.

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