Laura Hess suspended; Hess Kennedy in receivership

Updating our previous story, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the Florida Bar has taken action against the law firm that may have ripped off millions of dollars from consumers.

State documents filed in Broward County Circuit Court claim that in 2006 and 2007 the law firm run by Laura Hess and an affiliated company managed by Edward Cherry paid $12 million to friends and relatives, and to businesses run by former employees or associates of Hess and Cherry.

In the meantime, the firm did not negotiate with clients’ creditors or review credit records as promised, resulting in some consumers being sued for their debts or having to file bankruptcy, records showed.

Hess Kennedy Chartered LLC and The Consumer Law Center collected “exorbitant” upfront fees, usually up to 15 percent of the client’s unsecured debt, according to the Florida Bar’s Tuesday filing with the Florida Supreme Court.

John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, and Elizabeth Edwards

I have no idea if the allegations that former presidential candidate John Edwards has a love-child with Rielle Hunter are true–though his actions seem pretty damning.

But let me be the first to point out that, if the allegations are true, Elizabeth Edwards can take advantage of North Carolina’s unusual tort law to sue Hunter for alienation of affection. When we last looked at the state of affairs in North Carolina in 2006, there were 200 such suits a year, with some verdicts in the six and seven digits. Of course, Mrs. Edwards would need a trial lawyer willing to take on her husband first.

Efforts to abolish the tort in the state have not been successful, though it is worth noting the fact that several dozen states have abolished heartbalm statutes without anyone suggesting that this tort reform is constitutionally problematic.

Update: Edwards persuades me that the story might be true when he gives a lawyerly non-denial denial filled with negative pregnants: “That’s tabloid trash. They’re full of lies. I’m here to talk about helping people.”  Someone needs to ask a more targeted question of a purported candidate for vice president or attorney general.

Disbarred lawyer: Amex helped the cops trace me

By reader acclaim, to quote Michael Krauss at PoL: “a disbarred Manhattan lawyer, who has been convicted of statutory rape, has sued the American Express Co. for giving police credit card information that he says led to his capture in Canada, where he had fled to avoid prosecution. 44-year old James Colliton objects that American Express violated its agreement to withhold customer information from third parties. We haven’t seen his contract with Amex, but doubt that it obliges the company to resist requests from law enforcement.” Any readers able to shed light on this question? More: NY Post, NY Daily News.

More: Discussion continues at Scott Greenfield’s.

“Family wants $1.5M for unauthorized use of their images”

The Humphreys – Bagent – Aguilar family of Charles Town, W.Va. and Fort Wayne, Ind. says professional photographer Sheri Grippo-Titus, who formerly practiced in Charles Town, used at least 74 photos of the family on her web site without obtaining a requisite model release, so they’d appreciate getting a million and a half. Possibly relevant: one member of the family formerly worked for Grippo-Titus but parted on unhappy, still-disputed terms. (Cara Bailey, West Virginia Record, Jul. 18). More on photo permissions here, here, and at other points in our art and artists category.

Labaton Sucharow rebuffed again

“For the second time in less than a week, class action law firm Labaton Sucharow has been reprimanded for overreaching in its attempts to lead a major securities fraud action.” Having attained lead counsel status in one class action against American International Group, the firm sought to combine that case with others pending elsewhere that raised quite different claims against the much-sued insurer.

“As is readily apparent here, lead plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Amend to add unrelated claims is a calculated attempt at judge shopping,” [Southern District of New York federal judge John] Sprizzo wrote. “It seems apparent that lead plaintiff is trying to usurp lead plaintiff status over claims which are properly in front of other judges.”

The decision came just three days after Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff admonished Labaton Sucharow attorneys for perhaps not “fulfill[ing] their professional responsibilities” in their proposal of a co-lead plaintiff in In Re Monster Worldwide Securities Litigation, 07 Civ. 2237.

(Mark Fass, “Labaton’s Newest Bid to Lead Major Securities Fraud Action Rejected”, New York Law Journal, Jul. 22).

Great moments in expert witness work

Philadelphia and New York City prosecutors say Richard Gottfried (who is not the New York state assemblyman of the same name) wrongfully obtained hundreds of thousands in court-appointed work as a sentencing expert for indigent criminal defendants, in the process collecting money for work never performed. Gottfried, who allegedly invented degrees for himself, knows a bit about sentencing from the other side: he’s an ex-convict whom authorities say had been involved earlier in mail fraud and a real estate scam. (AP/Washington Post; Bronx D.A. Robert Johnson release, Jul. 8; Philadelphia DA Lynne Abraham case listing, Mar. 13, 2006).

Lawsuit: you excluded my service monkey

Latest disabled-rights lawsuit alleging exclusion of an emotional comfort/ psychiatric service animal: Debby Rose of Springfield, Mo. is suing Wal-Mart, Cox Health and the county health department over their refusals to let Richard, her macaque monkey, into various food and health settings. Richard assists Ms. Rose with her agoraphobia (fear of public and open places) and panic disorder. County officials sent out a mass mailing warning businesses that admitting monkeys such as Richard to the premises would violate health codes. (Springfield News-Leader; KSPR; Arbroath). Earlier coverage of emotional service animals: May 14, 2006 (airlines grapple with demands to seat large dogs and emotional-support goats); Feb. 28, 2005 (jury awards $314,000 to Royal Oak, Mich. woman over co-op’s no-pets policy); Oct. 18, 2005 (ferret in university dorm); July 12, 2005 (frequent-filing Californian); May 5, 2005 (Seattle grocery store owner fined $21,000); Oct. 25, 2004 (if you want to bring your pet into a San Francisco restaurant, get a note from your doctor); Dec. 2, 2004; Jul. 9, 1999 (Seattle clothing store owner made to pay fine and undergo re-education for not welcoming shaggy dog).

Medical liability roundup

  • “The accusatory legal document begins with several remarks defaming the skills, education, ability, integrity, and honesty of the physician being charged.” [Donald May, State Policy Blog] But hey, don’t take it personally, lawyers say [Mark Crane, Medical Economics] Good luck with that [Chiaramonte/Examiner, KevinMD, more]
  • Law throwing open Florida doctors’ peer review to lawyers was bad enough, but now state high court has applied it retroactively to records created before law was enacted [KevinMD guest post; background at PoL here, here, and here]
  • Even the New York Times hails as “sensible” laws encouraging medical apologies by making them inadmissible as evidence of wrongdoing [editorial]; but see counterexample to the usual reportage [Berlin/Am. Journal of Roentgenology via Buckeye Surgeon]
  • A med-mal defense attorney says plaintiffs would win more often in proposed “health courts” than they do in the cases he handles [Medical Economics, more, and similarly]
  • More evidence, this time from study of orthopedists, that docs rated as cold or callous attract far more than their proportionate share of suits [Orthopedics Today]
  • EMTALA, the law forcing emergency rooms to take all comers, “has created the very conditions it sought to avoid” [Edwin Leap, M.D.O.D.] Watch for “free-standing” ERs that dodge mandate by refusing federal dollars [Scalpel or Sword?, Health Care BS] Semi-defense of law [Over My Med Body]
  • Besieged state of dispersed emergency rooms and specialists is one reason for use of those risky helicopters that fly patients to the big city [Williams/Health Business Blog, M.D.O.D.]
  • Docs should stand up to family members demanding futile or inappropriate end-of-life care [Musings of a Dinosaur] Relatedly, daughter on dying father: “if you give him any more morphine, I will sue you.” [Fat Doctor]

(Most links via the highly recommended one-stop shop for medical blogging, KevinMD, e.g. this post and this one on EMTALA.)