The Lighter Side of Health Law – February 2023

AHLA's monthly podcast featuring health lawyer and blogger Norm Tabler's informative and entertaining take on recent health law and other legal developments.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

This episode of A H L A. Speaking of health law is brought to you by A H L A members and donors like you. For more information, visit american health law.org.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Hi, I'm Norm Tablo with this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Wall. Does this make the barber an accomplice? In a Baltimore alley, a witness saw a man with shoulder length dreadlocks shoot and kill another man. Later, the witness saw the shooter on the street, but his hair was now close. Cropped at his murder trial, the judge gave the pattern jury instruction on destruction of evidence saying that getting rid of the dreadlocks could be considered destruction of evidence and therefore consciousness of guilt. He was convicted of murder and the conviction was upheld on appeal. My question is, was the barber in accomplice? After all, he's the one who did the cutting and therefore the actual destruction of evidence. The case is rainy versus state Maryland Court of Appeals death before disbarment. You've heard of death before Dishonor. While this is death before disbarment, California attorney Donald Stone apparently preferred death to disbarment. Donald was facing disciplinary action by the State Bar for failing to disclose. He had been convicted of shoplifting at Sears. He skipped four scheduled bar court hearings, including his ethics trial. In response to an email from the bar, Donald or at least someone using Donald's email address, sent the bar an email saying quote, I don't know what this is, but Donald passed away months ago. But when the bar sent an investigator to Donald's address, the man answering the door introduced himself as Donald Stone. Donald was disbarred. That's the bad news. The good news is he's not dead. How to lick the opposition. Denver attorney Devin Barkley practices in the Colorado bankruptcy Court, or at least he used to before he came up with a crackerjack idea to lick the trustee he didn't like and like so many great ideas, it was remarkably simple. Barclay gave the following directive to his clients who were to mail material to the trustee. Quote, if you have Covid or some other highly infectious, nasty disease, or if you know someone who does, please make sure they lick the envelope and handle it as much as possible. Strangely, bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas McNamara was offended by Devin's imaginative tactic and has suspended him for practicing in his court, addressing the nursing shortage. Well, down in Florida, 25 people came up with a crackerjack idea how to address the nursing shortage, not just in Florida, but all over the country. The idea, well, we'll just sell a nursing degree and accompanying transcript to any aspiring nurse who can afford our 10 to$15,000 price tag. The plan worked, at least for a while. They had 7,600 purchases from all over the country. What about the National Council Licensure Exam? Nclex, while surprisingly 37% of the fake degree holders passed ala, all good things must come to an end. The Feds found out about the scam and the 25 people are now facing charges of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy with prison sentences of up to 20 years. Word of the month. This month's word of the month is actually a two word job title. It's Chicken Wrangler. I came across it an illegal publication this month. My first guess was that a chicken wrangler must be a cowardly ranch hand, but I was wrong. A chicken wrangler is simply a person who tends chickens. The article was about a chicken wrangler in North Carolina accused by Purdue of negligently causing a fire that burned down the chicken house, taking a number of feathered occupants with it. According to the news story, the incident occurred when the chicken wrangler was quote, rounding up a flock of chickens. Now you know the case is Morgan Chicken Farm versus Unicon, Gwinnett County Georgia Code. When is a car parked? When you take your car into the shop for an oil change? Do you park it? Well, no. At least not in Michigan. In Michigan, even though the car is turned off and it's not in motion, it's not parked. Just ask Karen Belmore. She pulled into friendly oil change for routine maintenance. She got it outta the car to look at the filter of the repairman wanted to replace. Well, of course, oil change shops have pits under the cars they're servicing. Karen fell in and injured herself. She sued for damages under two alternative theories. One was that she was engaged in quote maintenance because she was checking out the filter. The court said she was not. Second, she argued for the quote parked vehicle provision. The court rejected that one too, ruling that a car is not considered parked when it's involved in maintenance. It's involved in maintenance. But of course, Karen wasn't doing the maintaining and her fall didn't arise from maintenance. It arose from her carelessness. The case is Belmore versus friendly oil change. Michigan Court of Appeals, Robbie, the robot Esquire. Could Robbie the robot become a lawyer? How about Hal, the diabolical computer? In 2001, space Odyssey law professors at University of Minnesota tested chat box chat G B T on a variety of legal issues, including both multiple choice and essay questions, and it passed earning a c plus. Surprisingly, at least to me, it did better on the essay questions than the multiple choice. Soon we may be competing with robots for legal work. Maybe we should do what the patent office and scientific publications have done. They have loudly proclaimed that no chap, G B T or other AI cannot hold a patent or even be author of a scientific paper. By the way, when you see AI in print, is your first thought that it's Al as an Al Franken or is it just me, Aetna, cover those knees. This is a new one on me. Medical device maker conformance has sued Aetna over excluding conformist artificial knees from coverage. It's the theory of the plaintiff that I find interesting. It's not some sort of contract or antitrust claim. It's a liable case. Defamation Conformist says that by telling the world that its knees are quote, experimental or investigational, it's defaming conformists and causing physicians to shun its artificial knees. The district court dismissed the case finding that conformists had not demonstrated that Aetna's statements were false, but the first Circuit reversed ruling that conformists had made a plausible case that Aetna's statements were false. How did conformists make that case? By showing that over at 90% of insurers as well as Medicare and Medicaid cover the device and don't regard it as investigational or experimental. The case is conformist versus Aetna First Circuit not fit for a dog. Well, Mia Bennett has lost her disability lawsuit against Hurley Medent partly because she could not find a onesie for her Corgi pistol. Mia says Pistol is a service dog that helps with her anxiety and panic disorder, so she needs pistol with her as she makes the rounds in the med center. But Hurley made her stop bringing pistol to the hospital because some hospital workers and patients had allergic reactions, some of them severe. The hospital suggested she get a quote shed defender for pistol, a onesie to contain shedding and possibly prevent the allergic reactions. Pistol is triggering. Get it pistol triggering. Well, Mia didn't try. Why not? Because she says they simply don't make shed defenders that fit corgis. The judge was not impressed with Mia's case. He gave the hospital summary judgment in case Bennett versus Hurley Med Center. Eastern District Michigan at least opened the thing. I don't know how this guy got through law school or the Illinois Bar exam, but apparently he did and he landed a job with the global law firm. Dentons David Hall has been fired by Dentons and suspended from the practice of law for 60 days by the Illinois Supreme Court. Why? Because he falsely built 277 hours for reviewing 425 documents. How did it get caught? Well, someone at Denton's noticed that 405 of the documents had never even been opened. Here's a tip. If you bill for reviewing a document that comes by email, at least open it and if you bill for reviewing a document that comes in the regular mail, at least unseal the envelope. A new definition of auto eroticism in Missouri, a woman is won of 5.2 million. Award is compensation for contracting a sexually transmitted disease during car sex. The man she had sex with had been diagnosed as H HIV positive, but he didn't bother to tell her, so the man has to pay her 5.2 million. Right? Wrong, Geico has to pay. Why? Because the man had auto insurance with Geico. Fortunately for Geico and its little lizard mascot, the state Supreme Court has sent the case back to the the trial court because of a procedural error complaint department, no contract. This month's complaint is about ads on television and elsewhere that brag that if you sign up with them, quote, there's no contract. You hear it all the time in ads for phone or internet service, but clearly something is wrong if there's no contract. Then what's to make sure they provide all the benefits? The ad raves about? How do you know what you get or what you have to pay if there's no contract? Try this. The next time you get a monthly bill, write back and say, I don't have to pay you. We never had a contract. If you have a complaint, send it to me. Well, that's it for this month edition. I hope you liked it. I'll be back next month with another edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law.

Speaker 1: 9:46

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