Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer - Rants and Raves

Reason #25 for the high cost of medical care

Ben Glass — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:52:40 GMT

A former dentist from Pennington Gap has been found guilty by a federal jury of 10 felony charges, including racketeering and fraud.

According to officials with the office of U.S. attorney John Brownlee, 51-year-old Roy Shelburne has agreed to a forfeiture of a total of $200,000 to the federal government because of the conviction.

Shelburne is now facing a maximum penalty of a prison sentence of 120 years and fines of $1.25. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9.

According to attorneys, since 1998, Shelburne had been billing insurance carriers and Medicaid for services that were never performed or were not necessary for his patients that were low-income and/or underage. In some cases, the procedures harmed their health.

According to the prosecutors, on some occasions, he would perform one dental procedure, but bill for a different one.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

A Lighhearted Look at Federal Judges

Ben Glass — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:49:06 GMT

All of the lawyers who read this blog will really enjoy this short musical video.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Pay Day Loan Rates Should Not Be Capped in Virginia

Ben Glass — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:46:49 GMT

The Virginia General Assembly has started its 2008 session and one are of controversy is whether so-called "Pay-
Day" loan rates should be capped.

House Bill 12 proposes limiting the annual rate of these loans to 36%. This is a bad idea.

A "pay-day" loan is a short term unsecured loan, usually of only a few hundred dollars, that generally carries a rather high rate of interest, especially when annualized.

The governement should NOT regulate these loan rates. Here are the reasons:

1. The pay day franchise owner takes a huge risk in loaning unsecured money. Those in favor of forcing loan rate caps are invited to start and operate their own pay day loan company

2. There is a huge market for this stuff. According to the Washington Post, Virginians took out more than 3.3 million of these loans (not dollars, but loans) in 2005.

3. No one is forced to borrow this money. Yes, the government should certainly regulate WHAT the creditor discloses to the customer but NOT what those terms should be.

This is a free market question. Let competition determine loan rates and terms.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Health Insurance Plans taking more than their fair share

Ben Glass — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:24:13 GMT

There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal about the bit that 'subrogation' can take out of your personal injury case. The WSJ blog has a good discussion going and I have contributed to it.

The bottom line with personal injury cases today is that the plaintiff and her lawyer need to figure out, in advance, whether the health benefit plan will be seeking reimbursement. If so, this has to go into the calculation.

Some cases are not worth taking if the subrogation 'bite' is going to leave the plaintiff without any recovery.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Appeals Court Issues Rare Public Rebuke of Judge

Ben Glass — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:35:43 GMT

In an extraordinary public rebuke of a sitting judge for one of his decisions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has formally apologized to the parties for the cost and delay that the judge's action caused. The case is Calderon v IBEW Local 47.

The plaintiff started a lawsuit and served one party but initially failed to serve a second party. The judge, Manuel L. Real, issued an order to "show cause" why the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute. This order was served by email, which wasn't checked by plaintiff's counsel, so Judge Real dismissed the case. The plaintiff then did serve the second defendant and asked that the case be reinstated, which Judge Real, without argument, refused to do.

(This isn't the first time someone has noticed Judge Manuel L. Real.)

Here's what the appellate court said:

1. The judge failed to give the attorney proper notice of the hearing.
2. At the time the judge issued the order to "show cause" the time for service on the second defendant had not even expired.

The court of appeals went on:

The district judge's unseemly haste in dismissing the case, and his failure to heed the perfectly plausible (and meritorious) explanation proferred by plaintiff in his motion for reconsideration, has cost the parties significant money and delay in pursuing this wholly unnecessary appeal. Justice suffers when judges act in such an arbitrary fashion. We apologize to the parties and admonish the district judge to exercise more care and patience in the future.

Here's the opinion.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Coin Flipping Virginia Judge Tossed

Ben Glass — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:36:10 GMT

In a highly unusual proceeding, the Supreme Court of Virginia has dismissed a Juvenile Court judge who
(1) decided a custody matter by flipping a coin;
(2) had a mentally disabled woman pull her pants down to show an alleged wound;
(3) made and ex parte call to a local hospital to attempt to verify/discredit the woman's story about being wounded.

What (else) is unusual is that the Supreme Court, sitting as a court of original jurisdiction, actually held a live hearing and took evidence.

The court found that the conduct of Judge James Michael Shull's courtroom conduct so tainted the public's perception of our justice system and impaired public confidence in that system that it ordered him removed from office immediately.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Is Capping Payday Loan Rates a Good Idea?

Ben Glass — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:20:14 GMT

Here we go again. New laws being floated in Virginia to cap profits a business can earn.

Those businesses making "payday" type loans are in the riskiest of lending businesses. They are taking a huge risk, and should be allowed to charge whatever they want as long as

1. Loan terms are fully and fairly described
2.The rules of the loan terms are followed.

After that, no one is forcing these folks to borrow money. This is just like the bailout of the sub-prime mortgage industry. No one forced those people to borrow money they couldn't afford to borrow.

The government should stay out of the business of regulating payday loan rates. Yes, make sure loan terms are disclosed. Yes, make sure Fair Debt Collection rules are followed.

But no, don't tell a business the amount of profit they can earn. That's simply un-American.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Dangerous Dogs In Fairfax County

Ben Glass — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:45:21 GMT

I'm so glad to learn that upon searching, there are no dangerous dogs in Fairfax County.

Now I can sleep at night.

I'm sorry. This is idiotic. Who is going to go here to search. How much did Virginia spend on this?

Oh, I get it now.

The state is requiring liability insurance for dangerous dogs. Wonder who is insuring that?

Here's the code section:

Virginia Code Â§ 3.1-796.93:1. Control of dangerous or vicious dogs; penalties.

F. All dangerous dog registration certificates or renewals thereof required to be obtained under this section shall only be issued to persons 18 years of age or older who present satisfactory evidence (i) of the animal's current rabies vaccination, if applicable, (ii) that the animal has been neutered or spayed, and (iii) that the animal is and will be confined in a proper enclosure or is and will be confined inside the owner's residence or is and will be muzzled and confined in the owner's fenced-in yard until the proper enclosure is constructed. In addition, owners who apply for certificates or renewals thereof under this section shall not be issued a certificate or renewal thereof unless they present satisfactory evidence that (i) their residence is and will continue to be posted with clearly visible signs warning both minors and adults of the presence of a dangerous dog on the property and (ii) the animal has been permanently identified by means of a tattoo on the inside thigh or by electronic implantation. All certificates or renewals thereof required to be obtained under this section shall only be issued to persons who present satisfactory evidence that the owner has liability insurance coverage, to the value of at least $100,000, that covers animal bites. The owner may obtain and maintain a bond in surety, in lieu of liability insurance, to the value of at least $100,000.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

"No" to Mandatory Legal Malpractice Insurance

Ben Glass — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:59:08 GMT

The Virginia State Bar is again considering the issue of forcing lawyers to buy malpractice insurance. Complete waste of time.

Their own statistics show that 90% of lawyers who deal with the public have malpractice insurance.

I think that lawyers should carry malpractice insurance but its not the business of the bar to force any business owner to carry insurance any more than it could force the business owner to have nice carpeting.

But...here's the deal...the bar should mandated disclosure of the absence of insurance to a client. It's very important that a lawyer have insurance. Most consumers expect this. My rule would be that if the lawyer does not have insurance that he/she should be forced to disclose this up front. Then, let market forces carry the day. For some consumers, it won't matter. But let the consumer make the decision (not an arm of the government.)

Until individual disclosure is mandated, consumers can check the insurance status of a Virginia lawyer here.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Don't Talk to the Insurance Industry "Unarmed"

Ben Glass — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:08:44 GMT

"Unarmed" with good information, that is. Alaska personal injury attorney Michael Schneider has a great example today of how an injured victim's trust ended up costing him. According to Mike, the Allstate rep "earned" the victim's trust with their "you don't need a lawyer, you'll do just fine with us" mantra.

The problem is that in dealing with an adjuster, the information is usually flowing only one way--you to them. The adjuster has interviewed thousands of claimants, this is your first claim.

Try asking the adjuster a few questions:

(1) Can I have a copy of your insured's statement?

(2) How much insurance is available to cover my injuries?

(3) Will you advance funds because my doctor bills are piling up?

I'll bet you won't get a lot of info from the adjuster with those questions (and I have plenty more).

Look, you don't need a lawyer in every case but you should be armed with good information about automobile accidents and the whole "tort reform" issue.

If you live in Virginia, you should probably get my free book Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Car Accident Case, before signing any forms or giving statements to the insurance adjuster.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass