Trial Attorney Blog

Our Atlanta, Georgia lawyers see health insurance companies deny valid claims on a daily basis, depriving policyholders of necessary medical care to which they are entitled. Now, a California health insurer has been caught red handed. The insurer, Health Net, has agreed to pay as much as $14 million to settle a pair of lawsuits brought on behalf of 800 former policyholders whose coverage was dropped after they submitted substantial medical bills.
On February 11, the court granted preliminary to a settlement in which individuals whose health insurance policies were canceled since 2004 are eligible for payments of up to $218,000. The average payment is expected to be $7,836.
The settlement would resolve a class-action lawsuit filed by private attorneys and by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.
In addition to the payments to customers, it requires Health Net to pay a fine of $2 million to the city attorney and to contribute $500,000 to charities.
The settlement comes after a two-year crackdown by California regulators on the widespread and controversial practice known as rescission. Rescinding an insurance policy is a serious matter. It means that an insurer is accusing the policyholder of withholding or concealing vital information.
A policy rescission means that the consumers coverage is completely gone. Insurance companies can unilaterally cancel a health insurance policy, after issuance if the insurer later finds omission on the application. In many cases, the rescission is for a valid reason, such as failure to mention a history of severe cardiovascular problems. But many insurers collect premiums and when a large claim is filed, rescind the coverage over minor mistakes in the application.
In deals with California regulators, insurance providers Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield all have agreed to make substantial changes in the way they sell individual coverage in an effort to reduce the number of rescissions. Health Net has agreed to pay more than $40 million to resolve the regulatory actions and litigation over rescission.
According to documents Health Net rescinded 1,600 policies and saved $35.5 million over several years. Health Net paid bonuses to an employee based in part on how many rescissions she carried out.
We applaud the California officials who protected consumers from these reprehensible practices, and can only hope that Georgia officials will show the same courage.

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The more one reads about the problems with the products distributed by the Peanut Corporation of America, the more one realizes that there were serious management problems with that Company’s plant in Blakely, Georgia. According to published reports, when federal and state inspectors went to the plant, they found evidence of mold, leaking roofs and other unsanitary conditions. According to an FDA report, not only was there mildew on the ceiling roof of the storage room, there was also evidence of infestation by cockroaches and rodents. Subsequently, it was determined that the Company through its internal testing had, in fact, detected the presence of Salmonella in several of its product lines. These contaminated products were, nonetheless, shipped out into interstate commerce. On January 30 of this year, the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation to get more answers about the Salmonella outbreak. Even thought the Peanut Corporation of America has now recalled all of the possible contaminated products associated with its Blakely facility, there have already been more than 8 deaths and 600 illnesses reported in 43 states arising from this scandal.

On January 27, 2009, the FDA completed its inspection of the Blakely, Georgia plant. The FDA reported that the records from the Georgia facility showed that there were 12 incidents in 2007 and 2008 where the Company had identified some type of Salmonella during its own testing procedures and yet still allowed its peanut products to be shipped out for sale. Given the FDA’s own inspection which documented numerous unsanitary conditions, and because of these internal test results, it is clear that there was a major problem with management at this facility. Obviously, this is why the government has launched a criminal investigation. Obviously, there has been an apparent lack of concern for public safety given the manner and method in which this operation was conducted.

According to the media, when the FDA initially inspected the Blakely, Georgia plant, plant officials were asked if there had been any reports of Salmonella at the facility. Repeatedly the government was told there had been none. This is extremely troubling which might be a partial basis of the criminal investigation. (It is a federal crime to make false statements to federal investigators and from media reports it appears that such a crime may have occurred.) Of course, all the facts are not in yet and no indictment has yet been returned against anyone. Nonetheless, the public reports concerning the Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, Georgia facility are troubling to say the least.

The above questions are often asked by clients who have been seriously injured in an automobile case or a trucking collision. Regrettably, there are some attorneys out there who will give unrealistic “pie in the sky” answers to such questions, usually for the purpose of trying to convince a client to retain their services. A good lawyer, however, will usually not provide a response to these questions until he or she has fully investigated the case and has access to all of the critical data needed to analyze the value of the case.

Obviously, there are many factors that determine the value of a case. Does the case involve strong evidence of liability against the defendant to be held responsible for the damages? Are there any aggravated circumstances involved? Does the client have a clean background and are the claimed damages fully documented? Is there good evidence of lost wages? Will there be a permanent disability and, if so, has this been documented by the treating physician? Is there a favorable venue or must the case be filed in a rural county where juries return small verdicts historically? In short, there are many questions that arise in trying to questions posed of a similar nature by clients who have been seriously injured and damaged in a bad accident.

Clients understandably want to know whether they are going to recover their damages and be adequately compensated. Regrettably, sometimes the answer is that they will not be adequately compensated. If there is little or no insurance available for an at-fault driver, there may be little or no chance of recovering an adequate compensation for the innocent injured client. If an at-fault driver was on the job for their employer and there is a commercial policy available with significant liability limits then full compensation may be a possibility.

An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease has been confirmed at Atlanta, Georgia’s Grady Memorial Hospital. Water tests confirmed today that two units at Grady Memorial Hospital were the source of the bacteria that caused Legionnaires. Four patients have been sickened by the disease.

A Grady spokesman claimed this was the first time in Grady’s history that the Downtown Atlanta hospital has been the source for disease in patients. The two Grady patient units consisting of and 80 beds have been closed since last week. The Grady spokesman said crews are treating these units and additional floors and will continue testing throughout the hospital.

Three of the four patients have responded to antibiotics and have been discharged. The fourth is still receiving treatment. An additional 50 patients have been tested for the disease, but those tests were negative.

Many Georgia parents, and thousands of parents across the country who have children suffering from autism, received bad legal news today. They had claimed that childhood vaccines had caused their children to develop autism.

In a long awaited decision, a special court rejected their claims and ruled that they are not entitled to federal compensation. The decision in three test cases is a severe blow to a national movement that has argued that childhood vaccines have been responsible for the surge in autism diagnoses in the United States in recent decades.

The majority of the scientific community, backed by federal health agencies, has argued there is no link between vaccines and autism. They also argue that deterring parents from vaccinating their children places children at risk for a host of serious childhood diseases.

On the way to work today I saw an automobile accident that had just occurred. A lady had been rear-ended by an automobile on the interstate highway. The cars were very badly damaged and it was clear that one of the drivers was injured. The ambulances had not yet arrived.

As I drove by the accident scene, I thought to myself, “I wonder how this unfortunate lady will find a competent Georgia automobile accident attorney to represent her interests effectively, competently, honestly, ethically and professionally?” Like any other choice a consumer must make involving an important personal matter, consumers must beware of who they hire to represent their interests in these cases. Not all lawyers are created equally nor do they have the same professional abilities. While there are many that advertise their services to the pubic, the public should investigate the background of any attorney to make sure that they are the proper attorney to handle their case.

Lawyers are no different from doctors. While there are many surgeons out there, not all surgeons are equally adept at certain surgical procedures. Some have a better reputation than others, some have greater experience than others, some have a better educational pedigree and background which qualify them for more sophisticated forms of surgery. In a automobile accident case where the person is not seriously injured, the differences in skill and competency may not matter. However, in a case involving serious injuries, lost wages and the possibility of a permanent disability, the greater the skill level of the attorney, the more likely it is that the client will receive competent representation.

We heard a radio piece on National Public Radio the week before last about the rise in uninsured motorists nationwide. It is now estimated that as many as 16% of the motoring public are driving without insurance. In today’s tough economic times, people are failing to pay not only their house bills, which has lead to the mortgage crisis, but also their car insurance bills. This means that many motorists are endangering the lives of their fellow motorists as they drive. Obviously, they are hoping that they will not be involved in an accident. If they are, it is not the driver who causes the accident which is at risk, it is the innocent victim of their reckless conduct.
The only way to protect one’s self against a uninsured motorist is to purchase uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance coverage. While all drivers are required by law to maintain liability insurance coverage to protect the rights of other motorists, 16% of our fellow drivers, apparently, are not fulfilling this duty. Many others purchase the absolute minimum limits required by law – typically $25,000.00 which provides no meaningful protection for serious injuries. Therefore, we are all 16% at risk when we get behind the wheel of being involved in an accident where the driver causing the accident does not have insurance. For those who can afford it and whose budget will allow it, it is therefore increasingly important that uninsured motorist protection be purchased. Without such coverage, if someone is involved in a terrible collision involving serious injuries or even death, there will be no recovery in all likelihood because anyone who is driving without insurance will not have personal assets sufficient to satisfy a judgment in any event

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Our Atlanta lawyers interview potential clients on a daily basis concerning their injuries and hospitalizations. Many times, potential clients, even those who have been hospitalized for long periods, cannot tell us the name or names of the doctors who treated them in the hospital. Now, a recent survey has shown that this is a common occurrence. According to the survey, hospital patients are rarely able to identify their doctors by name or to describe their roles in the patients’ care.

Researchers at the University of Chicago interviewed 2,807 adults admitted to the school’s hospital over a 15-month period. The patients were asked about the roles of the various physicians attending to them and to name the doctors on those teams. The medical teams consisted of three to four people.

Amazingly, 75 % of the patients surveyed were unable to name a single doctor who participated in their care. Of the 25 % who offered a name, only 40 % were correct. The patients who claimed to understand the roles of their doctors were more likely to correctly identify at least one of their doctors.

Our personal injury and wrongful death attorneys in Atlanta, Georgia support MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. If you have not done so, please go to Parade magazine’s website at www.parade.com/drunkdriving, and vote “YES” in the poll asking this question: “Should ignition interlocks be mandatory for drunk drivers nationwide?”
MADD’s National President Laura Dean-Mooney has asked that this message (below) be passed along, so we are using our blog to publicize it. Please pass this message along to your friends and family, to help eliminate drunk driving!
Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful Super Bowl weekend. I don’t usually write to you on the weekends, but there is an extraordinary opportunity today and tomorrow to help advance the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving quickly and easily, so I wanted to let good friends like you know.
The Parade Magazine that comes out Sunday, February 1st, includes a short piece on the effectiveness of interlocks. The Parade article highlights the huge reductions in repeat offenses that interlocks can achieve by making it so that drunk drivers can’t drive drunk. The article is up at www.parade.com/drunkdriving and it’s a quick read.
The exciting part is that there is a poll next to the article asking whether these interlocks should be required for all drunk drivers nationwide. We are working to get just such a bill in every state this year and having your voice in this poll would help us convince legislators that interlocks aren’t just the right thing to do, but that they are also the right thing to do politically.
Please take a moment today or tomorrow to go to www.parade.com/drunkdriving and make your voice heard; please help let the politicians know that you want to eliminate drunk driving as soon as possible.
Thank you for your strong support. We couldn’t do what we do without you.
Happy Super Bowl weekend,
Laura Dean-Mooney
MADD National President
PS. Would you please also ask your friends and family to vote? Thanks!

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Every spring and summer as swimming pools open for the season, we read about tragic drownings, often involving children. Statistics show that drowning and near drowning are a leading cause of death and brain injury. Many of these unfortunate incidents could be prevented if swimming pools had proper anti-drowning drain covers and suction cutoff devices installed. These covers and suction cutoff devices are designed to prevent children from being caught in the swimming pool drain as a result of strong suction. Under the new federal regulation, which went into effect last year, public swimming pools and hot tubs are required to install special devices that will prevent drain suction from trapping children under water. These new rules apply to pools and spas used by the public, including municipal pools and those at hotels, private clubs, apartment buildings and community centers. The new law does not require retro-fitting of private home pools.
As with any case, it is always important to throughly investigate the facts of a tragedy in a timely manner so as to preserve evidence. The law firm of Finch McCranie, LLP has represented the families of victims of serious injury and wrongful death accidents for over 40 years.