New York- DENTIST-to-the-stars Dr. Larry Rosenthal isn’t rich and successful only because he knows about molars and bicuspids – he also knows how to extract money from insurance companies.
According to papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, when Rosenthal’s own 13-year-old son, Eric, fell off the back of the dentist’s Vespa and broke his wrist in the Hamptons in the summer of 2003, Rosenthal hired a lawyer so his offspring could sue him for damages.
Rosenthal’s many celebrity patients include Donald Trump, Sumner Redstone, Harvey Weinstein, Bruce Springsteen, Kathie Lee Gifford, Christie Brinkley, Chloe Sevigny, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger and Bridget Hall.
Rosenthal’s own insurance company offered young Eric $85,000 in a settlement approved a few months ago. The lawyers did pretty well too, scoring $27,645 for their trouble.
“Motorbikes are not included under personal injury insurance coverage,” notes a representative for Rosenthal. “Therefore, under counsel’s advisory, [Eric] brought the claim against the owner of the Vespa, who happened to be his father.”
Rosenthal’s rep insists that, “The money awarded to the son, who is a minor, was used to cover his medical bills and the remainder is in a trust, of which his father is not a trustee, and will be used toward his college education.”
Rosenthal himself was badly injured in the Vespa crash, suffering a punctured lung, broken ribs and other injuries after being dragged by a car that hit him as he lay on the road, his spokesman notes, although he has not sued anyone.
Rosenthal, whose hugely successful practice earns him millions of dollars a year, has collected some enemies along the way as well. A group of his disgruntled patients has set up a Web site, baddentist.com, that details all sorts of monstrous allegations against Rosenthal, and a counter Web site, allaboutbaddentist.com, has also cropped up to deny them.
Court papers show the dentist settled at least one of four malpractice suits and had his license suspended in the ’80s over possession of drugs without a prescription.