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UPDATE: Dr. Hulda Clark's FTC Lawsuit

By David Amrein

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ur support now. I need you to write letters to the court and to the FTC to stop their insane action. Below find the addresses you should write to in order to make yourself heard. Last spring I got 1500 support letters. I think we should go for 5000 this time!

If you are a doctor or a naturopath, I need your expert testimony including your contact information, background, what your experience with the Clark protocol is and whether you have cases that could be documented if the need arose.

A quick overview of our FTC case

Our web site has been a resource for hundreds of thousands on the web. It is mainly an informational website, consisting of testimonials, Dr. Clark's recipes and some excerpts from her books about her basic discoveries. Many people whom I have received testimonials from would never have known about Dr. Clark if it had not been for the website.

To finance our activities, we also sell products, the proceeds of which are invested in research to support Dr. Clark's findings. We have done one research study in 2002 and three more will be done by the end of 2003.

In 2001 we got a letter form the FTC saying they believe we were making false claims about the products we sell. They proposed what is called a consent order. Many of the demands of that order were unacceptable. For example, the duration of that "agreement" was to be 20 years. In Europe agreements that last longer than 10 years are illegal because they borderline on slavery.

Also, the consent order required us to take down all the Clark information from our website, which I was not willing to do. Dr. Clark has done a tremendous amount of work for us and people must know about it.

Now, the FTC is trying to shut down our website through a court order. They have submitted a motion to the court in Ohio for a temporary restraining order until our trial takes place in February. We assume that once we are shut down, they will go on to attack other Clark websites, until none is left.

The FTC holds that:

• When we have excerpts from Dr. Clark's books on our web site this is equal to making product claims;

• That our disclaimers are not prominent and unambiguous;

• That Dr. Clark's findings are at best a delusion and at worst a fraud.

We do not agree.

• We believe in an informed choice. An informed choice can also be made about approaches that have not yet been clinically evaluated, as long as the consumer has all the available information at hand.

• Dr. Clark's statements are clearly marked as such. The disclaimers which are ubiquitous on our web site, explain exactly what this information is and how it has been substantiated or not. There is no ambiguity any place.

• Many hundred therapists and practitioners use the Clark approach in their practice. And while I will agree that some of what she says sounds way out there, those professionals report success with their patients and that is all that counts. Also we receive testimonials daily, so I know how powerful this approach can be.

• We do not claim that any of this is scientific by the standards of the Federal Trade Commission. And when I look at the lack of success of orthodox medicine with chronic conditions, that is maybe a good thing.

• To study all that Dr. Clark has researched to the FTC's standards will take decades and millions of dollars. In the meantime, we think the people should still be able to find about her pioneering work.

But then again, eventually the consumer must decide whether they find our web site misleading. So I did two things:

• I inquired with my e-zine readers whether they had the impression that our web site was misleading. In response, I got 1456 favorable responses, many of them testimonials from cured people; 9 negative ones and 14 neutral ones. This is a very important group to ask because these are the actual readers of my website.

• I sent a refund request to all 6700 US customers. In response we got 200 support letters, but only two refund requests. This is a very important group to ask, because they are the actual customers, and are the ones the FTC is supposedly trying to protect.

But if the customers find that they have been adequately informed and appreciate the fact that Dr. Clark's information is available online, then WHO IS THE FTC PROTECTING???? And, are the FTC experts smarter than you so they should be filtering what you can read??

I would like you to make up your own mind and let the FTC know what you think. All contact info is below.

• The attorney on the case is Michael Milgrom. You can find his contact info below.

• The regional office of the FTC where he works is East Central Region, the Director of which is called John M. Mendenhall.

• Please also send a letter to the main FTC office in Washington, DC. The Chairman of the FTC is Timothy J. Muris.

• Send a copy of your letter to the District Court of Ohio where our case is pending. We do not know which judge has been assigned to our case. The chief judge is Hon. Paul R. Matia.

• Finally, send a copy of the letter to us for the file.

Please write the letters now, and to all of the above and get all your friends who are in favor of freedom of choice to write letters also. This issue is very time sensitive. Anyone who has an opinion on this, have them write a letter! Pass the e-mail on, tell others about it. Itis more crucial now than ever.

Note that there are two issues that you should differentiate in your letter:

• The first is whether the information on our web site is misleading. This will be the main interest of the court, much more so than whether the protocol actually works.

• The second issue is your personal experience with the protocol and our products, and whether you have found it to work. Testimonials are not recognized as proof, but thousands of testimonials always make a difference.

Write letters to all of the below. Include your full contact information. Include whether you are a customer.

1) Michael Milgrom

direct phone number 1-216-263 3419

email mmilgrom@ftc.gov

2) The Federal Trade Commission

East Central Region

John M. Mendenhall, Director

Eaton Center Suite 200

1111 Superior Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44114-2507

USA

phone 1-216-263 3455

fax 1-216-263 3426

3) Timothy J. Muris, Chairman and Commissioner

Federal Trade Commission

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20580

USA

The central office gives no email address, fax or phone number. But there is a toll free number you can call with customer concerns. It is:

Consumer Help

1-877-FTC HELP (382-4357)

4) United States District Court

Northern District of Ohio

(Hon. Paul R. Matia, Chief Judge) Carl B. Stokes United States Court House

801 West Superior Avenue

Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1830

Case number: Civ. No. 1:03CV0054

General concerns can be addressed to:

Bruce_E_Chancellor@ohnd.uscourts.gov

T_Jeff_Miller@ohnd.uscourts.gov

Make sure not to forget the case number in the letter so it ends up in the right place.

5) Send a copy to us under this email address, or send mail to:

Dr. Clark Center

Bielstrasse 12

3053 Muenchenbuchsee

Switzerland

Thank you to all the freedom fighters out there. Your help is very much appreciated.

Sincerely Yours

David P. Amrein

President, Dr. Clark Research Association

info@drclark.net

16 September 2003

(c)2003 by Dr. Clark Research Association and David P. Amrein

http://www.drclark.net

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