Kiwi Farms
Dr. Kathy Rumer is a sex change surgeon operating out of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her own thread here due to her poor reputation even among transsexuals and insistence on picking Internet arguments with disgruntled ex-patients. If you trust Reddit threads, simply saying "I was a Rumer patient" will be instantly understood to mean "I'm not exaggerating, the results really were that bad and it ruined my life" in many trans support groups.
But that's not why we're here today, we're here because she has sued one of those disgruntled ex-patients for defamation.
The Plaintiffs
On the plaintiff's side we have Delaware Valley Aesthetics, PLLC and Kathy "Butcher of Ardmore" Rumer. The PLLC is legally distinct from Rumer herself, but from a practical standpoint the fact that they are both suing makes little difference especially since there appear to be no other doctors in her practice.
Rumer is represented by Lance Rogers, Joseph Heffern, and Brian Newman of the firm Rogers Counsel (formerly Rogers Castor). Of note, this is not the firm that defended her in the malpractice suits she got hit with in 2018.
The Original Complaint
(Link to original complaint)
The complaint is made only names anonymous (John and Jane Doe) defendants. This is controversial in every court because a judgment against an unidentified person is unenforceable and even filing a suit with Doe defendants amounts to a plaintiff asking for permission to fill in the names later. The site in question is rumersanonymous.blogspot.com. To use its own colorful language, it is dedicated to chasing the #ButcherOfArdmore i.e. Rumer herself. Rumer's attorney goes through the site and tries to become a lolsuit all-star:
* A post demanding that Rumer specify which patient gave a quote Rumer mentioned in an ad is spun as accusing Rumer of fabricating a quote
* Doxing Rumer is labeled "invasion of privacy"
* They included an entire email verbatim:
And claim that this troll has sent many more Rolling Stones-inspired emails to intimidate her
* Claims that simply linking others' Reddit posts is libel.
Notable by its absence is anything to suggest patient satisfaction or outcomes; in fact Rumer claims to perform more than 350 transsexual surgeries annually. That's almost 1 and a half a day assuming 250 working days a year which is just absurd.
The Amended Complaint
The presiding judge got mad at Rumer for not even trying to unmask the Doe defendants after multiple extensions (link) and she eventually filed an amended complaint naming Jane Doe 1 as Jamie Miller but leaving John Doe 1 unidentified (link). The judge has not objected and does not appear to be interested in tossing this case while John Doe 1 is identified.
One minor but hilarious detail in the amended complaint: Rumer's attorney got the name of the website wrong this time and now names rumorsanonymous.blogspot.com. Of all the details to fuck up, he picked the one that could invalidate the entire case!
Our Unlikely Hero
For once a troon may be the hero the Farms gets: Jamie Miller (signing documents as Jamie Roe, not sure what is going on there) has responded to Rumer's complaint with fire and autism. His pro se response is linked here and his attorney-drafted one is here but the only funny detail in the whole bit is that in his telling Rumer named the wrong ex-patient as a defendant. I can't even imagine how terrible she must if her response to learning about an ex-patient calling her a butcher was to go, "you'll have to be way more specific". Naming Jamie in particular might have been a particularly scummy way to move this to federal court because this is a state-law claim; federal courts only get involved if the plaintiff and defendant are from different states (the formal term is "diverse").
Roe is not formally represented by counsel; the attorney-drafted response was written collaboratively by a legal aid firm but none of the attorneys involved provided a name.
EDIT 1: Attorneys' names and profiles added.
EDIT 2: More dox and removed a few lines that don't apply now that this is out of Prospering Grounds.
EDIT 3: Attached new documents filed in the case (24 June 2021).
But that's not why we're here today, we're here because she has sued one of those disgruntled ex-patients for defamation.
The Plaintiffs
On the plaintiff's side we have Delaware Valley Aesthetics, PLLC and Kathy "Butcher of Ardmore" Rumer. The PLLC is legally distinct from Rumer herself, but from a practical standpoint the fact that they are both suing makes little difference especially since there appear to be no other doctors in her practice.
Link to resume, being a doctor is her second career. Back in the 1990s she did research for Lockheed Martin and NASA - Lockheed is a defense contractor and NASA puts things into space; combine that with the fact that she was cleared Top Secret and my guess is she worked on spy satellites. I am pro privacy but will still say that espionage is a more honorable profession than butchery.
Doxing is not a crime Kathy you stupid twat:
Kathy also got hit with four malpractice suits in 2018 alone; this is verbatim from the OP of her main lolcow thread:
Valentino v. Rumer (a): Resolved via "binding high-low" arbitration, meaning that Rumer + the plaintiff agreed on high and low limits for damages and then let a third-party arbitrator make a decision based on mutually agreed-upon facts (so the practical outcome was a settlement). I don't know if there is a difference in terms of Rumer's malpractice rates but the added privacy of arbitration minimized her risk of embarrassing events during discovery.
Minto v Rumer (a): Another binding arbitration referral. She even used the same attorneys she hired in the Valentino case, if there's a group you don't want to have a stable business relationship with it's a malpractice-defense firm. The defense statement is unhelpfully vague (PDF, also attached below) and she is vindictive enough to demand attorney's fees against plaintiffs who sue her for malpractice. This reinforces the belief that there is some kind of shady NDA policy in her practice. A brief piece about the case was written in the Pennsylvania Record (a).
Coley v Rumer (a): Also referred to binding arbitration, also represented by the same attorneys, but the judge did not appear to formally "close out" the trial the way the other ones were - the others were "dismissed with prejudice" after the arbitration referral. This does not mean they were meritless, only that the plaintiff cannot refile because he agreed to get legal relief through arbitration instead.
Thompson v Rumer (a): You can guess how this one ended by now, binding arbitration with an unhelpfully vague defense from the same. exact. attorneys. The interesting part is that the plaintiff was originally prepared to have Jess Ting (of Jazz Jennings infamy) appear as an expert witness to testify in support of the malpractice claim (PDF, also attached below). I'm willing to bet her settlement here was much larger than usual.
Doxing is not a crime Kathy you stupid twat:
Kathy also got hit with four malpractice suits in 2018 alone; this is verbatim from the OP of her main lolcow thread:
Valentino v. Rumer (a): Resolved via "binding high-low" arbitration, meaning that Rumer + the plaintiff agreed on high and low limits for damages and then let a third-party arbitrator make a decision based on mutually agreed-upon facts (so the practical outcome was a settlement). I don't know if there is a difference in terms of Rumer's malpractice rates but the added privacy of arbitration minimized her risk of embarrassing events during discovery.
Minto v Rumer (a): Another binding arbitration referral. She even used the same attorneys she hired in the Valentino case, if there's a group you don't want to have a stable business relationship with it's a malpractice-defense firm. The defense statement is unhelpfully vague (PDF, also attached below) and she is vindictive enough to demand attorney's fees against plaintiffs who sue her for malpractice. This reinforces the belief that there is some kind of shady NDA policy in her practice. A brief piece about the case was written in the Pennsylvania Record (a).
Coley v Rumer (a): Also referred to binding arbitration, also represented by the same attorneys, but the judge did not appear to formally "close out" the trial the way the other ones were - the others were "dismissed with prejudice" after the arbitration referral. This does not mean they were meritless, only that the plaintiff cannot refile because he agreed to get legal relief through arbitration instead.
Thompson v Rumer (a): You can guess how this one ended by now, binding arbitration with an unhelpfully vague defense from the same. exact. attorneys. The interesting part is that the plaintiff was originally prepared to have Jess Ting (of Jazz Jennings infamy) appear as an expert witness to testify in support of the malpractice claim (PDF, also attached below). I'm willing to bet her settlement here was much larger than usual.
Rumer is represented by Lance Rogers, Joseph Heffern, and Brian Newman of the firm Rogers Counsel (formerly Rogers Castor). Of note, this is not the firm that defended her in the malpractice suits she got hit with in 2018.
@kiwi-identified cow did all the work for me on Lance, I'm just copying over this post.
Lance Rogers is the "Rogers" of Rogers Counsel.
Some biography and dox because why not:
Voter registration:
Mother of fuck that's a nice mansion:
Proof dad is an attorney too, I can't imagine how Lance got to where he is in life
Lance Rogers is the "Rogers" of Rogers Counsel.
Some biography and dox because why not:
Voter registration:
Mother of fuck that's a nice mansion:
Proof dad is an attorney too, I can't imagine how Lance got to where he is in life
Here's his profile from Rogers Counsel:
Legal background: One cannot practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) unless one has a science degree. This requirement makes patent lawyers very in demand when the rest of the profession is oversaturated because many attorneys major in things like economics or psychology in undergrad. Between this and his consultation for pharma companies I imagine he will be pulling double duty as an attorney and an expert in trans standards of care. This seems like an odd pick to me because he's not listed as an MD and pharma consultation does not make him an expert on transsexual standards of care.
Doxing him will take some time, his Whitepages turned up 1370 N Bailey Rd Coatesville PA 19320 which is in the right part of Pennsylvania but Zillow says there is no such address. I'll keep plugging away at this.
Legal background: One cannot practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) unless one has a science degree. This requirement makes patent lawyers very in demand when the rest of the profession is oversaturated because many attorneys major in things like economics or psychology in undergrad. Between this and his consultation for pharma companies I imagine he will be pulling double duty as an attorney and an expert in trans standards of care. This seems like an odd pick to me because he's not listed as an MD and pharma consultation does not make him an expert on transsexual standards of care.
Doxing him will take some time, his Whitepages turned up 1370 N Bailey Rd Coatesville PA 19320 which is in the right part of Pennsylvania but Zillow says there is no such address. I'll keep plugging away at this.
Let's have a face to go with this name, he's the youngest of the three by a wide margin:
Dox: 3310 Ellington Lane, Phoenixville, PA, 19460
Dox: 3310 Ellington Lane, Phoenixville, PA, 19460
The Original Complaint
(Link to original complaint)
The complaint is made only names anonymous (John and Jane Doe) defendants. This is controversial in every court because a judgment against an unidentified person is unenforceable and even filing a suit with Doe defendants amounts to a plaintiff asking for permission to fill in the names later. The site in question is rumersanonymous.blogspot.com. To use its own colorful language, it is dedicated to chasing the #ButcherOfArdmore i.e. Rumer herself. Rumer's attorney goes through the site and tries to become a lolsuit all-star:
* A post demanding that Rumer specify which patient gave a quote Rumer mentioned in an ad is spun as accusing Rumer of fabricating a quote
* Doxing Rumer is labeled "invasion of privacy"
* They included an entire email verbatim:
And claim that this troll has sent many more Rolling Stones-inspired emails to intimidate her
* Claims that simply linking others' Reddit posts is libel.
Notable by its absence is anything to suggest patient satisfaction or outcomes; in fact Rumer claims to perform more than 350 transsexual surgeries annually. That's almost 1 and a half a day assuming 250 working days a year which is just absurd.
The Amended Complaint
The presiding judge got mad at Rumer for not even trying to unmask the Doe defendants after multiple extensions (link) and she eventually filed an amended complaint naming Jane Doe 1 as Jamie Miller but leaving John Doe 1 unidentified (link). The judge has not objected and does not appear to be interested in tossing this case while John Doe 1 is identified.
One minor but hilarious detail in the amended complaint: Rumer's attorney got the name of the website wrong this time and now names rumorsanonymous.blogspot.com. Of all the details to fuck up, he picked the one that could invalidate the entire case!
Our Unlikely Hero
For once a troon may be the hero the Farms gets: Jamie Miller (signing documents as Jamie Roe, not sure what is going on there) has responded to Rumer's complaint with fire and autism. His pro se response is linked here and his attorney-drafted one is here but the only funny detail in the whole bit is that in his telling Rumer named the wrong ex-patient as a defendant. I can't even imagine how terrible she must if her response to learning about an ex-patient calling her a butcher was to go, "you'll have to be way more specific". Naming Jamie in particular might have been a particularly scummy way to move this to federal court because this is a state-law claim; federal courts only get involved if the plaintiff and defendant are from different states (the formal term is "diverse").
Roe is not formally represented by counsel; the attorney-drafted response was written collaboratively by a legal aid firm but none of the attorneys involved provided a name.
EDIT 1: Attorneys' names and profiles added.
EDIT 2: More dox and removed a few lines that don't apply now that this is out of Prospering Grounds.
EDIT 3: Attached new documents filed in the case (24 June 2021).