Legal Hurdles: How Will Patients Make Their Case In Hopkins Scandal?

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- More attorneys prepare to file lawsuits in the growing scandal surrounding a Johns Hopkins gynecologist who police say secretly videotaped his patients.

Derek Valcourt has more on the legal hurdles those clients are likely to face.

At the heart of this case is the same basic question that all of these women are now asking themselves--am I in one of these videos?

From full page ads to town hall style meetings to TV commercials, it's an all out effort by local attorneys to find former patients of Dr. Nikita Levy.

The Johns Hopkins gynecologist apparently took his own life amid allegations that he secretly recorded inappropriate videos of some of his patients during exams.

"This is just shocking," a patient said.

Attorneys for Tyesha Bell have already filed among the first of what promises to be countless lawsuits against Levy's estate and the prestigious hospital he worked for.

"Because I would like first and foremost for all of his clients to receive some sort of compensation," Bell said.

"I think this is something that Johns Hopkins is going to want to do everything in the world to put it behind them," said attorney William Buie III.

Buie says the case poses some legal challenges, including trying to prove which of Levy's hundreds of patients were recorded and then proving to a judge or jury that any of the patients actually suffered because of it.

"I'm sure that the way the lawsuit will go will be that the patients will simply argue at the end of the day--whether or not they can prove they are on videotape or not--is that the mental anguish and pain that was caused simply by potentially being one of these individuals that was videotaped should be good enough to entitle them to compensation," he said.

Johns Hopkins declines to comment on the case citing the pending litigation, but they say any invasion of a patient's privacy is intolerable.

Police confirm they are investigating whether any of the recordings taken by the doctor were posted on the Internet.