Former DHMC fertility doctor seeking $1.7 million in legal fees

Dr. Misty Blanchette Porter reviews cases from the day and fills out paperwork at the Reproductive Health and Infertility Center at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. People in the Upper Valley hoping to conceive through IVF now have to travel to Burlington or Bedford, N.H., to access treatment after the closure of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s REI division in 2017. (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Valley News file — Alex Driehaus
Published: 05-20-2025 5:00 PM |
BURLINGTON — When it comes to a doctor’s wrongful termination lawsuit against Dartmouth Health, legal fees could end up costing the state’s largest health system more than the financial judgment itself.
Attorneys for Dr. Misty Blanchette Porter are seeking to recover $1.7 million in legal fees “and related expenses” from DH for their work representing the fertility doctor during the nearly seven years she battled the hospital over her 2017 firing.
A jury determined last month that DH violated Vermont’s disability protections for employees and awarded a total of $1.125 million in damages to Blanchette Porter, who was a specialist in Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s now-shuttered reproductive endocrinology and infertility unit.
The jury sided with DH in the five other claims Blanchette Porter had alleged.
DH’s attorney’s have not responded to the motion for attorney fees.
DH still has until Thursday to file motions to set aside the verdict or to reduce the amount of damages.
The judge presiding over the case will determine the question of attorney’s fees.
Geoffrey Vitt, lead attorney for Blanchette Porter, said it likely would be “late June or early July before the judge makes any decision.”
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If granted, the $1.7 million in legal fees would be shared by law firms Vitt & Nunan in Norwich and Langrock Sperry & Wool in Burlington, who jointly represented Blanchette Porter, according to the filing.
In addition to recovering their legal fees from Dartmouth Health, attorneys for Blanchette Porter are asking the court to award $241,000 in “pre-judgment interest,” which is an amount equivalent to the statutory annualized 12% allowed under Vermont law based upon the $1 million in economic damages awarded to the plaintiff.
Dartmouth Health’s attorneys are opposing the motion seeking the pre-judgment interest award, arguing the presiding judge should either reject it out of hand or “significantly” lower the amount, according to court documents.
Blanchette Porter was awarded an additional $125,000 in non-economic damages such as “lost enjoyment of life, mental anguish, or pain and suffering.”
Motions by plaintiff attorneys to recover fees on prevailing claims against defendants are typical in civil lawsuits and require attorneys to submit detailed records of the hours they worked, the tasks they did and rates they charged in the case.
Judges have the discretion to grant the motion as submitted, amend it or reject it.
The trial jury found Dartmouth Health had failed to meet Vermont Fair Employment Practices, relating to Blanchette Porter’s disability. In 2015, she suffered a cerebral spinal fluid leak that required multiple surgeries at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and two lengthy leaves of absence from work.
A “preponderance of the evidence” showed Blanchette Porter’s disability was a “motivating factor” in her firing, the jury determined. (Since Blanchette Porter lives in Norwich, she could file her lawsuit in a Vermont federal court).
Blanchette Porter, a graduate of Hanover High School and a 1998 graduate of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, is now a fertility specialist with the Reproductive Health and Infertility Center at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.