About — FightThis

The CDPH complaint

A few years ago, my mother experienced what's called medical abandonment — a doctor terminated care without proper notice or referral, in violation of California medical board rules. Filing the complaint with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) took me, a technical professional with a lot of free time, the better part of a weekend.

The complaint form wasn't complicated. The supporting documentation wasn't complicated. But knowing what to write, which regulations to cite, and how to frame a complaint so it gets taken seriously rather than filed away — that took research. Time. Energy. Things most people don't have at the moment they need them most.

I kept thinking: how does an ordinary person — working a full-time job, kids at home, no idea what a "scope of practice violation" is — fight back against this kind of thing? They don't. They give up. The system is engineered to make them give up. The confusing language, the overwhelming bureaucracy, the implicit message that you don't have standing to push back — it's not an accident.

The insight

Here's what I learned: the quality of a complaint letter is often the difference between action and inaction. The same facts, written vaguely, get filed away. Written specifically — with the right form number, the correct regulatory citation, the appropriate legal framing — they get taken seriously.

This isn't about gaming the system. It's about participating in it on equal terms. Companies have lawyers. Hospitals have billing departments. The IRS has enforcement agents. Debt collectors have sophisticated scripts. Ordinary people have... whatever they can figure out from a Google search at 11 PM.

FightThis is the equalizer. Not a lawyer. Not a guarantee. Just the well-crafted letter that gets the conversation started on your terms.

Why this isn't DoNotPay

DoNotPay's FTC settlement in 2024–2025 was instructive. They made claims their product couldn't back up. We learned from that.

FightThis is honest about what it is: a drafting tool. We help you write a letter you could write yourself with enough time and research. We just make it faster and more precise. We cite real statutes (not fabricated ones). We don't claim to be lawyers. We don't guarantee outcomes. We tell you when your situation is above our pay grade and you need a real attorney.

That posture is built into every page of the site, every letter we generate, every interaction with us. It's not just legal cover — we believe it's the right way to offer this kind of tool.

Our values

Plain language. Eighth-grade reading level. No legalese unless we're explaining what the legalese means.
Honest about limits. "Most appeals succeed when actually filed. Yours might not." Not "Guaranteed results."
Conservative legal posture. We are not a law firm. We say this clearly, consistently, everywhere.
Evidence-backed. Every statistic we cite is sourced. Every statute we reference is real.
Built for the non-expert. If a first-generation college student can use it without feeling talked down to, we've done our job.

What's coming

Phase 1 is the marketing site and six verticals. Phase 2 is the actual draft flow — upload your letter, answer questions, get a polished response in minutes. We're building it now.

Longer term: Spanish language support, state-specific letter variants, content clusters for every vertical, and eventually a subscription tier for heavy users.

Press and partnerships

If you're a journalist, patient advocacy organization, legal aid clinic, or consumer protection researcher interested in what we're building — reach out. We're interested in partnerships that put this tool in front of people who need it most.