- Quickdraw McLaw
- 42 Comments
- 184 Views
- The Nevada Supreme Court heard argument yesterday on the Legislative Counsel Bureau representing legislators. [RJ; TNI]
- A man is suing Metro for their role in landing him in deportation proceedings. [TNI]
- Survivors of the Alpine Motel Apartments fire have to wait to get their belongings back so evidence can be preserved. [Fox5Vegas]
- Here’s a look at Nevada’s mandatory quarantine law. [KOLO]
I could really use some serious advice today. I have a client whose family member, an elderly man, was injured due to negligence. I do not do PI so I referred him to a PI firm with the warning that I didn’t know them, or PI, but that I had heard of satisfied clients (which is true). The injured person settled very quickly upon advice of the PI lawyer who said the injured person would get their check “within a month.” That was about a year ago. He tells me that the PI lawyer keeps telling him “I’m waiting for a final amount Medicare will accept.” So he said he called Medicare and they said there is no record of any lawyer, or “Letter of Representation.” Now the injured party is very angry with me even though I really have nothing to do with it. This brings up three questions: 1) I don’t see losing a Bar Complaint against me for the referral but maybe I’m missing something. I should have took the advice of the two lawyers in the STFU video last week. 2) Does it ring true that it would take that long to get a check from a settled case? Does Medicare need a Letter of Representation? 3) Can he go to another PI firm or will he lose the percentage agreed to with the first lawyer? I practice in the tiniest area of transactional law and know nothing of PI. I have learned to STFU though. I sincerely appreciate any assistance with answers to my 3 questions.
Medicare will require a letter of representation. In my experience it takes around 30-60 days to get a "conditional lien" (assuming the injured party is finished treating. After that, and depending on the complexity of the case, there may be a negotiation process back and forth in terms of what items are properly a part of the lien, versus those that are unrelated to the incident. Depending on the complexity of the case and the amount of treatment involved, this process can take wind up taking some time, but a year is excessive and raises suspicions in my mind.
8:36 here – thank you for your serious response – I appreciate it
1. I would not worry about a Bar Complaint. Your defense sounds good. Just do NOT bury your head in the sand if there is a complaint. Respond promptly.
2. "So he said he called Medicare and they said there is no record of any lawyer, or 'Letter of Representation.'” This strikes me as suspicious. I've had Medi-Care take 6 months to give me their lien reduction, but over a year? And Medi-Care showing nothing? That is strange.
3. Unless the settlement is large, it is unlikely that any PI atty would take the matter over. Atty #1 will demand his entire contingency fee and will not agree to split it with Atty #2. So the client would have to pay an additional fee to lawyer #2, reducing his own share.
8:36 here – 1:36 I've had a lot of stress over this lately and truly appreciate you taking the time to respond to each question.
Are you getting a referral fee out of it? If not, you are for sure fine.
Says who, bar counsel? I think there can be liability for recommending a theft as an attorney.
Another thought… if this is an auto case, it is possible that they collected the tortfeasor's limits and are holding these in trust while negotiating the UM/UIM. This process can take *forever* and often it is something that clients don't fully grasp. It would make sense to try and determine whether there might be some kind of misunderstanding there between attorney and client, and if it is a high-volume firm they need to make sure they are talking to an attorney and not a staff underling.
2:53 Nevada has not recognized negligent referral as a grounds for liability. Some jurisdictions have to a degree. I believe California has, but not NV. Even if we had, I wouldn't be concerned under these facts.
4:06 beat me to the punch. But thanks 2:53 for asserting that the lawyer "recommended a theft."
I disagree, 4:28. It is possible, but stay with your opinion.
4:39– I welcome your citation to any cases where Nevada has recognized negligent referral against an attorney as a cause of action or precisely what facts given above you believe to rise to the level that the attorney in question "recommended a theft." This person expressed trepidation which you appear to have only stoked.
My legal cite is consult with a Nevada lawyer to get legal advice.
No new PI lawyer is going to undertake that case. Don't refe cases to billboard, IOLTA stealing lawyers.
I agree, no PI attorney is going to take that case. Um, if there is no letter of tdo, then Medicare will not do shit with the PI attorney. Your client needs to go after the OI attorney. Hogged, I mean Hogge, do something.
8:36 here. Confused as to why no one would want case already settled with very large national chain of stores. Seems like easy money?
No, no one will touch it. You open yourself up to liability. You can see if Nagvhi will take it.
Hire Naqvhi, because his father worked in a paper mill. This guy kills me.
Nobody would take the case at this stage, simply because it has already settled. The reasoning is that there is no work left to be done. You open yourself up to liability for things that already were/were not done that shouldn't/should have been, and arguably the first attorney settled the case and has a right to his contingency fee of the settlement amount. Suffice it to say, it is not worth the risk for likely no payoff.
Just don't hire the Weekend at Bernie's guy. The PI attorney who pretended the dead client was still alive.
Anyone can file a bar complaint for any reason and you need to respond. If that happens in your case, the explanation you gave above is more than sufficient to satisfy the state bar that you did nothing wrong.
Medicare can take a long time, sometimes months to give a final subrogation amount. The frustrating part of dealing with them is that no file is assigned to a person. If someone tells you that you'll receive a response in 90 days and they don't respond there is no accountability.
If there is a dispute on any of the charges that can double the amount of time. Typically any medical bills incurred for any reason will be thrown onto the lien even if it's clearly not related.
It's quite possible or even likely that the lawyer doesn't know what he/she is doing but that doesn't mean that it's been longer than normal.
No attorney is going to want to come in and clean up someone else's mess at this point for a split of the fee. I would recommend that the injured party go meet with the lawyer and ask to see what correspondence as gone back and forth between medicare and the firm. Typically once medicare is on notice of a claim they'll send paperwork that needs to be filled out to start the process. If that paperwork wasn't returned then the process hasn't started. If it wasn't returned until after the case is done then that will add considerable time. There should be a follow up letter from the lawyer to medicare every 90 days to make sure it doesn't fall through the cracks.
8:36 here, I also thank you for your serious response, I truly appreciate your taking the time to write it
Have any of you been following the slugfest between Amy Sugden and Brian Padgett in front of Crockett? Yeeeesh. Ugly.
I thought it was nice to see Eglet's in front of his man, Rob Bare.
The caucus is going to be a cluster fuck. Where is the early voting information? Glad Mayor Pete is in charge for Dems.
Have you tried Google? https://nvdems.com/2020-caucus/
I will, thanks. Just normally get the info in the mail.
You likely won't receive anything in the mail, unless a candidate's campaign or the state party itself sends you something. Remember, in Nevada we have the parties run nominating caucuses, not primary elections. The effect is the caucus is run entirely by the party itself. The state has absolutely nothing to do with it. It's not like most other races, where the state runs the primary and general elections.
Why do we do a caucus vs. a primary election for president? Some say the Democratic Party likes having a caucus for party building aspects, but the most salient reason is the state doesn't want to have to pay for a primary election.
@6:13, The state still has to pay for a primary election. It occurs in June. All offices other than the president/vice president appear in the official primary election. The caucus is a party driven event because they wanted to move Nevada up in the process to be an early state rather than wait until the primary date by which point in most years the nomination battle is long over.
They could have moved the primary up to March, but that would have extended the election season with candidate filings in the latter months of the preceding year.
So having moved up in the presidential nominating process, the state either moves all primary elections to be earlier or it conducts and pays for two.
I'm surprised you are not getting inundated like me. I'm getting people coming to my door and sending text messages on a daily basis about the caucus.
Just wanted to note that our blog seems much more productive what with the PI question and responses; the slugfest rumour; and mild witticisms. If we ignore the trolls, it is so much nicer. Good day to all!
I don't see anything with the posts on here. Better than some of the other crap I have seen written.
11:34 Do you think "Don't refe [sic] cases to … IOLTA stealing lawyers" is sage, pithy advice? You wouldn't categorize that as trollish?
No, I don't, and I am not 11:34. Seem a little sensitive. And auto correct, so whose trolling?
What are entry level partners making these days? I get that this will vary by firm-just trying to get an idea of whether my expectations are in line with the market.
Never heard of the term "entry level partner". In terms of expected income a major determining factor is whether they are an equity or non-equity partner. If equity partner, is there a "buy in" and whether that has been satisfied or is being deducted from income, etc. Is it an eat what you kill arrangement or a split of practice area group or total practice profits, whether it is a base plus a percentage of the profits of the underlings you supervise,…
As an new non-equity partner, my base salary is $178K. Midsized firm.
Thank you. New/non-equity was what I meant by entry level.
I am a non equity "partner." I hate that title. There is no such thing as a non equity partner. If you have equity, you're a partner. If you don't, you're not. NEP is just a watered down, meaningless title. I'm not a non equity partner. I'm an at-will mid-level manager.
I kind of look at it as a senior associate with greater likelihood of job security. Possibly a higher base salary and better bonus structure. Also, usually more administrative duties to perform in addition to, not in place of, your billable requirements.
My favorite story on this topic was a prominent Plaintiff-side firm (PI/CD) in which a NEP approached the (main) named partner and demanded equity, a raise and his name on the door. Named Partner responded that he would accommodate one of those requests and how big would the NEP like the letters.
As 11:48 said, if you control/have a say in the money, you are a partner. By the same token, if that does not matter to you and you are paid handsomely, lots do not need the headache that partnership brings because nothing is more awkward than that meeting at the end of the year when the other partners look at you and require that you pay back that draw.