Reference no: EM132093125

Barbara, a licensed psychiatrist, owns and operates a private clinic. One day, a young man named Bernard enters into the clinic and asks an assistant, Beatrice, for a copy of the medical records of one of the patients, namely, Bradley. Beatrice explains that medical records are confidential, but Bernard insists, telling Beatrice that he is Bradley’s brother and that the records are needed by another doctor, as Bradley will be undergoing a major surgery in a few days. Beatrice refuses to provide him with the records, explaining that medical records cannot be released to anyone other than the patient no matter what the reason is. Beatrice is then called into Barbara’s office, and Bernard realizes that no other staff member is around. Bernard makes his way to the medical records cabinet, takes a copy of Bradley’s medical records, and leaves the clinic unnoticed. Bernard reads Bradley’s medical records and realizes that Bradley has recently been recently diagnosed with dementia. Bernard, who actually owns a pharmacy and is Bradley’s main competitor, uses the information to tell everyone in the industry that Bradley has dementia, and that he will soon not have the mental capacity to work. Bernard also falsely tells everyone in the industry that, over the last month, Bradley has no longer been able to read prescriptions and has been giving his pharmacy’s customers the incorrect medicines. A few days later, Brian visits the clinic and asks to speak to Barbara. Brian tells Barbara that he is a sales representative of Always Clean Co., a company providing cleaning services and products. Barbara tells Brian that the clinic has a five year contract with Clean and Tidy Co., and thus, that she does not require other cleaning services. Brian tells Barbara that Always Clean Co. typically offers a 10% discount for new clients, but that, if Barbara terminates her business dealings with Clean and Tidy Co., he will give her a 25% discount on cleaning services. Barbara finds the discount attractive, and thus decides to stop dealing with Clean and Tidy Co. and sign a new contract with Always Clean Co. Brian notices that some of the tiles in the clinic have black marks, and tells Barbara that he has a cleaning product that will remove these marks instantly. Barbara decides to buy it, and instructs Beatrice to clean the black marks using the product. Beatrice reads all the information on the packaging carefully, and proceeds to clean the marks. However, when the liquid comes into contact with her hands, she suffers severe burns and is taken to the hospital, where she spends $500 on treatment and medicines. It turns out that, while the product is great for removing marks from tiles, anybody using this product needs to wear thick gloves to prevent severe burns to their skin. Nowhere on the packaging was this mentioned, nor did Brian mention this fact to Barbara. In the rush of trying to get Beatrice to the hospital, Barbara forgets about the liquid product that has not been properly cleaned up and heads back to her office. As one of the patients, Brooke, is walking into Barbara’s office, she slips and breaks her leg. When Barbara goes to check on her, Brooke tells Barbara that she did not notice the wet floor because she was reading a flyer for the clinic that she picked up from the waiting room. As a result of her injury, Brooke ends up paying $700 for medical treatment and misses work for a week, losing $1,500 of her monthly pay. At the end of the day, as Barbara is reviewing her earnings, she notices that $5,000 is missing. She goes through the security footage and discovers that Brad, another patient, who had been waiting for his appointment for more than two hours, had stolen the cash and walked out of the clinic unnoticed while Barbara was checking on Brooke.

Discuss, using the IRAC method, all the lawsuits that could result from the above set of facts.