Henry Fenton and Randy Hsieh recently settled a case before the California Medical Board (CMB) for a physician who was accused of sexual harassment by a patient. The plaintiff sought to have the physician’s certificate revoked or suspended for conduct that the plaintiff's expert witness deemed “beyond the standard of care. The final result, was that the doctor was given a mere public reprimand....
Fenton Law Group Of Counsel Alexander Kirkpatrick recently prevailed for a doctor in a hard-fought mandate proceeding in Sacramento Superior Court. His client, a Los Angeles-based internal medicine specialist, had been removed without cause from his membership on a Panel of disability evaluators. The panel is maintained by the California Department of Social Services to evaluate applicants for disability benefits under the federal Social Security Act. In a final decision filed October 22, Judge James P. Arguelles ruled that the Department of Social Services improperly terminated the physician ...
In a unanimous opinion, the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, affirmed an order of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued in May 2018 granting a physician’s anti-SLAPP motion to a cross-complaint and denying a defendant’s simultaneous anti-SLAPP motion to the underlying complaint. The defendant appealed the trial court’s order. The appellate court agreed with the trial court’s findings that the physician had demonstrated a probability of prevailing on the claim in the complaint, while the defendant had failed to submit admissible evidence establishing the timeliness of her ...
Henry Fenton and Summer Main recently achieved an outstanding result for their client, a pharmaceutical research scientist and tenured professor with the University of Southern California, who was disciplined by USC for alleged misconduct. The firm resolved the matter, pre-litigation, through USC’s appellate grievance process and negotiations with USC’s legal counsel. After a second appellate review of the client’s discipline, he was nearly completely exonerated. He had previously received a substantial pay cut and was forced to have a third-party supervise his interactions with students...
Henry Fenton and Nick Jurkowitz successfully represented a physician before the Medical Board of California in the dismissal of an Accusation without having to conduct a hearing. In the case, the Medical Board alleged that an ophthalmologist engaged in gross negligence with respect to her care and treatment of a pediatric patient. The issue was brought to the Medical Board’s attention by a competitor ophthalmologist, and the claims were specious at best. Af...
Nick Jurkowitz and Alexandra de Rivera won dismissal of a qui tam complaint against a Southern California pharmacy. Qui tam relator alleged that the pharmacy had submitted false claims for reimbursement to Medicare. The court dismissed the complaint on the basis that relator’s allegations failed to state a False Claims Act violation....
In an outstanding recent result for the firm, Nick Jurkowitz successfully defended a physician client against an accusation that he had recommended unnecessary surgical procedures to an elderly patient, who had come to him complaining of severe leg pain. According to the complaint, the firm’s physician client incorrectly diagnosed the patient with venous disease after reviewing results from an ultrasound, and proceeded to recommend a total of six unnecessary abalation surgeries to resolve the patient's leg issues. The patient then sought a second opinion from another physician, who disagr...