LEX FUGIT

"PEER" RECGOGNITION FOR A PRICE-CURRENT STATUS

 

At the current moment, I have been nominated/accepted for membership by the following peer recognition groups (yearly cost of membership attached)

Lawyers of Distinction-$775

Premier Lawyers of America-$695

American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys-10 Best Attorneys in Michigan-$295

And, I have just been informed that one of the lawyers in my office has, as a joke I presume, nominated me as a Super Lawyer for the next years Honors.

Don't know the cost of that one yet, but I assume that the selection process for someone of my vintage is something like:

"You are qualified-I think" 

SUED BY THE BOSS'S DAUGHTER

 

*Editor's note.  The story is not as lurid as the title might indicate. Notwithstanding, some names have been changed or withheld.  I have always felt that discretion is the better part of my continued licensure.

I worked as a plaintiff's personal injury attorney for many years, most of them with the firm of Bernstein & Bernstein (not Sam) in Southfield.

In 2015, for reasons that are available upon request, I switched over to the defense side of the aisle.  I am not the first to do, certainly.  Lawyers switch sides all the time.  I have had many defense cases with plaintiff lawyers, who had previously represented defendants I sued when I was a plaintiff lawyer.  This is a very incestuous business.

About a year into my defense career, I got a new case in.  Interesting, as the case was a combination auto negligence claim against my clients and a direct action against my client's auto insurer.  

Oddly enough, the claim was for a single item of collision damage in the amount of $1492.40.  Because the car damage was to a parked car, one of the more arcane provisions of the Michigan No-Fault law applied, and the carrier of the vehicle that struck the parked car was responsible for its collision damage.  My client's carrier had moved most of it's Michigan claim's handling out of state---way out of state.  The adjuster, new to Michigan law, thought that collision damage was paid by the parked car owner's insurance company, so he denied the claim.

So, the enterprising plaintiff lawyer's office sued my clients, the driver and owner of the striking vehicle, on a negligence theory, the Mini Tort as it was called. And they also sued my client's insurance carrier alleging a company-wide conspiracy to deny legitimate claims.

The plaintiff was represented by the Law Offices of Ronald Steinberg and Associates.  The "and Associates" was his daughter Kimberly Steinberg Goodman.  I "knew" Ron as someone I had seen around the courts for years, but as we were both plaintiff attorneys for most of those years, I never had a case with him.  

Most of my initial contact on the case was with Kim Steinberg Goodman.

Because there were 2 defendants, my clients and the carrier, the carrier hired 2 attorneys.  The carrier was represented by a large firm that grew to its impressive size by doing a lot the carrier's work. 

The carrier was wrong in denying the claim, but the denial was understandable in view of the fact that the parked vehicle collision damage provisions of the No-Fault Act were contrary (without apparent reason) from the way all other collision claims were handled under the Act.

I'M A SUPER LAWYER-PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE LIKE ME

I am exercising discretion on this one.  I know and like the attorney involved.  He is a good lawyer.  But.....

We have a bookkeeper who comes in our office one day a week.

Her husband was involved in an auto accident.  His injuries were serious.  We could not represent him (to be honest, we weren't asked), because the insurance carrier for the negligent driver was a company that we did business with.  So, we rationalized that we couldn't do what we weren't asked to do anyway.  

In any case, the husband had a relative who was an attorney out of state.  The relative referred him to a very highly regarded attorney at a very high profile plaintiff firm.  Good attorneys, good people.  

That said, it wasn't a very difficult case.  The man's PIP carrier had never even had him  submit to an IME, much less cut off his benefits.  So, no PIP lawsuit.

There was no IME in the auto neg case.  Plaintiff's dep was taken.  The big time lawyer assigned that to one of the "lower downs" at the firm.  No other deps taken--clear liability.

Biggish policy, case was settled at through case evaluation, where the panel gave the carrier a small discount on the policy limit, as is common in cases like this.

In other words, low impact litigation.  Very little interaction between client and the big time lawyer.

To be honest, the bookkeeper said she learned more about the case by accessing the court docket on line, and asking questions of the folks in our office every Thursday.

So, you didn't need to be Clarence Darrow to get the same result.

The bookkeeper and her husband were a bit surprised, when after the settlement, the "super lawyer" texted the husband on 5 separate occasions (at last count) asking him to write an on-line review of his services.  

That's nice.  There is no compliment like a 5-time solicited compliment.

In the end, I suggested they find out the name of the lawyer who showed up at the dep and write an on-line review of her talents.

No wonder the opportunities for attorneys to buy and pay for recognition abound.

THE REFRIGERATOR MAGNET HOMAGE

While every attorney with a pulse attempts to set him/herself up as a mediator ("Available 24/7 for you mediation needs!"), I remember a time when mediation/facilitation was the exception rather than the rule.

One of the first to mediate full time was Judge Kaye Tertzag, who retired from the Wayne County Circuit Court Bench in 2004.   He was a terrific mediator-intelligent, empathetic, engaging.  And he was a better man.

I have tried to adopt his 3 Ps-Be Prompt, Be Prepared, Be Polite as my personal, professional standards.

At the conclusion of a Tertzag mediation, the participants did not get a business card, per se.  They received a received a refrigerator magnet, shown below.

Judge Tertzag died in 2009, and I still have the magnet on my refrigerator.  That is a tribute to the judge, not to the longevity of our Kitchen Aid side by side.

The judge's voicemail message is no longer associated with that cell number (I checked recently), and Mrs. Tertzag no longer lives in Brownstown.  

I keep the magnet in plain view as a reminder of the man, his principles and his body of work.

So, as my mediation practice has increased, I thought I might copy Kaye Tertzag's promotional item, both as the good idea it is and an "homage" to the master.

This is my magnet, specifically designed to look as close as the Tertzag magnet as possible.

To further copy Judge Tertzag's  valediction:  Be Well.

 

 

LAWYER CARTOON OF THE WEEK 10

INSURANCE FRAUD AND THE GREAT BLACKOUT OF 2003

Despite recent history, insurance fraud is nothing new.

My favorite case from the mid-2000s involved a doctor who had treated one of my trip and fall clients during the early years of the new Millennium.

In 2007 this doctor was indicted on 80 counts of insurance fraud for allegedly submitting more than 80,000 false claims to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, totaling more than $2.5 million. The doctor told subscribers that he would split the money with them if they would allow him to falsely bill in their name. 

In my case, my client was indeed a BCBS subscriber, but Blue Cross had no record of any claims submitted by the doctor for my client's accident related treatment.  Nonetheless, Doc told my lady that she owed him "around' $5000.  However, I could never get a statement from him.  Eventually, I wrote to him telling him that, given his failure to either bill the carrier or supply me with a statement, he should not look to my client for payment for any treatment provided.

I heard nothing more about this doctor until reading about his indictment and trial.  He was found guilty on all counts.

In reading about the case, I read that the doctor had charged for 3 EMGs performed on August 15, 2003.  That was interesting given the fact that on that day Midwestern states, including Michigan were in the midst of the greatest power blackout in my memory.  I remember vividly the problems that blackout caused my wife and eye, stuck 90 miles from home, with only about 40 miles worth of gas.

I am persuaded that the doctor did not have a generator that allowed him to power his own EMG equipment.  His office was a storefront in Detroit near one of the old line hospitals.  It looked like it was built about the time the Dr. Kildare movies were filmed in the early 1940s and not updated since.

Doc was sentenced to 16 years in prison.  Oddly enough the internet still lists his office address and the Google pop up listed his office as "open" when I looked him up one afternoon last week.  

Sometimes I think the internet may not be infallible.  

Dr. Kildare

 

 

    

APHORISMS FOR AGING ATTORNEYS 3-EXTENDED EDITION

"(Insert name of client here) is a wonderful witness, is  extremely sympathetic, makes a great appearance, and will make a great impression on a (insert name of county)jury."--Last sentence of the introductory paragraph of plaintiff's Case Evaluation summary.

As a plaintiff PI attorney for 20+ years, I used that sentence as a matter of course.

Until the time I represented a career felon in a combined auto neg/PIP case.  This gentleman had been in prison 20 of the 21 years before the accident, and in fact, he had been released only 12 days before the accident happened.  Hey, anyone can get in an accident.  

Adding a little spice to this case was the fact that by the time I was assigned the case (it was already in court), our hero had been back in prison for 9 months.  He was violated on his parole based on a complaint filed by his girlfriend that he had physically attacked her.  Our client was claiming that this same girlfriend be paid (through this lawsuit), by the PIP carrier for Attendant Care and Replacement Services rendered to him.

And the cherry on the sundae--even though this guy had not had a paying job in 22 years, some company extended him a litigation funding loan before he went back in "the pen".

As he hadn't had much of an opportunity to treat much either, his case did not present at all well to a Case Evaluation panel, or later to a judge at the Serious Impairment Summary Disposition motion.

Being the enterprising attorney that I am, I did argue:

He could no longer walk as far as he could before the accident.  (He liked to walk at least a half mile daily, but the prison walls were only a quarter mile from his cell).

His activities were restricted based on written directives from licensed professionals.  (Officials of the Michigan Department of Corrections).

He required assistive devices in order to safely make his way about his "home".  (A shiv/shank).

He would make a fine appearance in Court. (Maybe I said "frequent appearance" in court.  He certainly he had sufficient experience).

Justice was done in that case.  We did not appeal.

 

 

 

THE NEW LOGO

Soon to be incorporated into watermarks, company annual reports, business cards, coffee mugs, backpacks, TV ads, radio ads, newsletters, stationery, LinkedIn posts, email signature blocks, pens, jar openers, YouTube videos, billboards, newspaper ads, golf outing hole sponsorships, blimps, banners over college football games---the self-promotional mind boggles.  I have it:  THE LEXFUGIT.COM BOWL.

By the way, the firm motto:  "Barba crescit, caput nescit" (a real historic Latin proverb) means:  "The beard grows, but the head does not grow wiser."  

LEX FUGIT-WAYNE COUNTY CASE EVALUATION PANEL AUGUST 14, 2019

One of the things I like about sitting as a neutral case evaluator in Wayne County, is that you see a lot of members of the Guild  Many attorneys, even after retirement from their full time jobs, continue to sit as case evaluators.  In fact, one day back in the Spring of 2019, I was sitting on one of 4 panels, each of which had a former AAA staff counsel serving as defense evaluator:  Charlie Pfeffer (on my panel), Chuck Trickey, Dennis Killeen, and Tim O'Neill.  

In addition, you do catch up on current events.  Unfortunately, not all current news is good news.  On August 14, 2019, I learned of the most recent, but apparently final retirement of Sarah Horace, the MTA hearings clerk.  Sarah was the Mediation Tribunal to most litigants and evaluators.  

I remember back when I was a plaintiff lawyer at a high volume firm, I was at Case Eval a lot.  After checking in, I would kind of "wander" back to the hearing rooms, only to hear Sarah call out:  "I see you goin' back there, Butler!  Don't you be goin' back there, Butler!"   She thought I was trying to "jump the queue", ahead of other litigants.  She was right.

Sarah retired once before and was called back to put the Tribunal back in order.

Apparently Sarah said her goodbyes at the August 9 2019 MTA golf outing, just the week before I sat.  I did not attend the outing.  I was preparing for trial at the time, and I don't golf.  Plaintiff PI lawyers generally don't schmooze their clients on the golf course.  I have tried to golf, but I was not good at it. Whenever I teed off the little church doors would close before my ball got up the ramp.

This time the retirement is official, I hear.  Sarah has family out of state and will be moving to be near them.  Although the new hearings clerk is extremely nice, the Tribunal won't be the same without Sarah.

If that was not bad enough, during the day I learned of the sudden death of Mike Daniels, a retired attorney from the firm of Romain, Donoforio, Kuck and Eggerer.  The firm's office was on the same floor in the same building and in space now part of the Mike Morse Law Firm.  

We used to refer to Daniels' firm as "Romain, Cobb, Bibb, and Iceberg-Lettuce serve you".

Mike was one of the good guys.  A great advocate, Mike knew his files and his law, and he didn't take the practice too seriously. 

When he retired a few years back, we got a letter or email, just saying he was retiring.  Period.  No second career as mediator, and I don't know that he even came back to be a case evaluator.  

His death was sudden.  I don't know the circumstances well enough to say anything else.  He was here, we worked together for decades and now he is gone.  Very bad news.  Rest in Peace, my friend.

Finally, I heard a rumor of some sort legislative assault on either case evaluation generally, or the Wayne County Tribunal in particular, coming from the western and/or northern parts of the state. 

While case evaluation is not perfect, I don't think it needs to be either eliminated or fundamentally changed.  I have offered to help address these issues.  

I hope we don't lose the Mediation Tribunal, especially after I have finally qualified as a neutral.  I understand that neutrals are in such short supply that they continue to get appointed up to 2 years after they pass.

AAA-APHORISMS OF AGING ATTORNEYS PART2

This category started with installment 1, which can be found here.

Today's quotes:

"Close enough for government work".--my former Bernstein & Bernstein co-worker, Mark Grayell, describing work product.  He probably did not originate this phrase.

"Butler, this isn't a f-ing Federal case"--my first boss, the late  John R. Carney, when, as an inexperienced lawyer, I came to him for guidance.  Carney was a memorable "character" in a business filled with them.  By the way, John always filled in the spaces between the "f" and the "ing".

"Judge, I think you would benefit from a little history on this case".--The opening sentence of every losing attorney who employed it at any motion hearing I have ever attended.