My husband has suffered in too many ways to mention. He was and is
a
chronic pain patient. He has neurological, etc. problems now which
are
obvious to anyone, and I won't go into here who or what we think are
responsible for them.
To make a long story shorter, he had to hire an attorney who I will
refer to
as "A," and the firm "A" works for to get his medical records from a
MD who
I will refer to as MD "X," and others associated with MD "X" when
they would
not send them all.
I don't know what state you are in, I don't know the law in your
state, and nothing in this answer may be relied on as legal advice.
All I am doing is giving you some questions to discuss with your
attorney, or with a prospective new attorney.
Attorney "A" wanted to see the ones they did send. Attorney "A"
formerly
worked for the risk management division of a hospital. Attorney "A"
says
that the approval of one of the law firm's partners is needed to do
something called a contingency agreement. Attorney "A" "talked to
the
partner in the firm and told him just from the records "A" has seen
that any
MD would be hard pressed to say you weren't on too much medication."
Attorney "A" told him that "the partner was very receptive and would
move
him to the contingency agreement when he gets the certificate of
merit."
There a few things in your story that bother me about your
relationship with your attorney. First, you should have a written fee
agreement before the attorney does anything that will involve billing
to you. If you have a written fee agreement, it will spell out what
charges will be billed. If you were not expecting charges for phone
calls, that's your responsibility if you have a fee agreement and
didn't read it or don't understand it. But it's the attorney's
problem if you don't have a written fee agreement. If you don't have
a written fee agreement, I suggest this should be the first priority,
before any charges are incurred or paid.
Normally, if your case is to be handled by the attorney on a
contingency fee basis, that decision is made by the attorrney and
communicated to you, and a contingency fee agreement offered, before
you are charged for anything. If this firm is charging you before
deciding on whether to represent you on a contingency basis, that's a
problem. The lawyer's statement that a partner is "very receptive is
meaningless. The lawyer's statement that they would need to get the
certificate of merit before deciding on a contingency agreement is
bothersome. It would be better for you if they would sign the
contingency fee agreement, then send you to the other doctor for the
certificate of merit, then decide whether to continue or withdraw.
The agremeent would typically say that you are responsible for the
costs of seeing the other MD, and that the law firm won't be charging
you anything. (I know nothing about the need for a certificate of
merit.)
Attorney "A" indicated they have an MD in another state that they
use for
the certificate of merit, who is in the same field of practice, and
would
send my husband to this MD. Attorney "A" said my husband has to pay
for
this MD along with getting the medical records and associated costs.
There are a lot of tricky things MD "X" has done, along with "X's"
associates, as well as other issues that my husband thinks need to
be
addressed NOW because he thinks that evidence is disappearing with
time. At
first Attorney "A" couldn't help him to word a response to a "draft"
letter
of referral to a new MD that MD "X" wrote, which looks like was
sent to my
husband for approval or something by MD "X." This letter from MD "X"
was
written with one false statement after another that MD "X" knows are
false,
misleading, and partly true but also not true, and more. This
letter should
have never been sent to my husband in the first place. My husband
never
requested such a letter.
Attorney "A" told us that the reason Attorney "A" would not help us
word a
response to this letter was "because its a life issue." Attorney "A"
made
this refusal statement before Attorney "A" had that "receptive"
conversation
with "A's" partner (as I referred to earlier). AFTER "A's"
receptive
conversation with the partner, "A" now wanted to help with us
wording a
response to MD "X's" so called "referral" draft letter. Another odd
thing
that happened is that Attorney "A" had been planning to fax the
response
letter to MD "X" on my husband's behalf. Then a couple of weeks
later "A"
faxed the letter to us for our approval and then told US to go ahead
and fax
the letter to MD "X" if we were satisfied with it but to first "cut
off the
top of the page that indicated that we had received the response
letter via
fax from "A's" law firm. I can't help but wonder why "A" decided
not to fax
the letter for my husband and also decided that the letter shouldn't
in
anyway indicate that it had come from "A's" law firm.
I don't know why you would want to respond to the doctor's letter of
referral. It may be that your health coverage is going to pay for the
second opinion and you have to respond to the doctor's referral letter
in order to get coverage for the doctor your attorney chose. I agree
with the attorney that you and your husband must make all decisions
concerning health and treatment. It bothers me that the law firm is
composing a letter of response when they haven't accepted you as a
client yet. That makes it seem like your case is in limbo, during
which you will be paying the law firm on an hourly basis until they
accep the case.
My husband has a lot of trouble communicating and understanding
things now.
And I can go completely absent minded and I can't explain why except
for the
shock of watching what's happened to him, to our lives, and seeing
how far
MDs will and are going to cover things up. They are altering
information,
helping one another when they know the other MD, and, believe it or
not,
even if they don't know the other MD in any way. MD "X" is
rewriting my
husband's medical history over the phone too, which has everybody
baffled.
There are other things too that are pretty hard to believe, that I
would
have had a hard time believing before going through this. That is a
shock
in itself.
Anyway I shouldn't be talking about me. Like I said, my husband's
brain is a
mess, and he is trying to identify how and why miscommunication,
misunderstanding and other things occur when he talks. It seems
like we are
making a 1 1/2 hour appointment or long phone conversation with
Attorney "A"
every week or 2 because things either aren't addressed in a way that
my
husband understands
