The Louisiana Court of Appeals, in NITCHER v. NORTHSHORE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, La: Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit 2012 dealt with an orthopedic surgeon, LaBorde, who wrote in his report that the claimant was not totally disabled and could return to sedentary work. The IME physician qualified that statement at [...]
New Expert Witness Blog from SEAK designed for attorneys and experts. We will be posting articles and other resources of interest. Check it out: blog.seakexperts.com
By Edward O. Comitz, Esq. Executive Summary The significant increase in physician disability claims over the past several years has caused insurers to scrutinize the terms of their policies and any claims made under them more closely and to use novel and creative theories when denying benefits. At the [...]
By Roger N. Morris, Esq., and Jay M. Johnson, Esq. Executive Summary New physicians looking to start their practice face many challenges. The need to earn a living and the desire to pay off loans require more than just the ability to diagnose and treat patients. There is a [...]
By Steven B. Ramsdell, Esq. Executive Summary The bankruptcy process consists of intertwined procedural and substantive rules that must be carefully observed if one is to maximize the probability of achieving his or her objectives, whether as debtor or as creditor. Although physicians, thanks to their potential for achieving [...]
By Philip A. Goldblum, Esq. Executive Summary The goal of asset protection planning is to protect and preserve assets from being adversely affected by events such as a lawsuit, divorce, illness, death, business failure, or even a change in taxation or other government action. Physicians, who rely heavily on [...]
By James J. Everett, Esq. Executive Summary Every practicing physician faces the risk of a lawsuit. Although many physicians mistakenly believe that they will never be sued, thousands of physicians are served with medical malpractice claims each year. To minimize the risk of personal and business assets being seized [...]
by James J. Everett, Esq. Executive Summary It is a common misconception that it is illegal for a U.S. citizen to hold assets offshore. Although moving assets offshore to hide income from the Internal Revenue Service in order to evade taxes is prohibited, the use of an offshore account [...]
By Patricia Donlevy-Rosen, Esq. Executive Summary Many physicians, due to lack of information or misinformation, do not take advantage of the full spectrum of asset protection legally available to them. As a result, rather than effectively protecting their assets from creditors, they leave their assets exposed and incur unnecessary expenses, [...]
By Patricia Donlevy-Rosen, Esq. Executive Summary All states provide some degree of asset protection through their state exemption laws. Many physicians attempt to implement asset protection on their own by using state exemption laws that shield certain types of assets, such as a homestead, wages, annuities, life insurance, and [...]