Legal Report

First and most importantly, on behalf of my partners, Victor Fusco, Esq. and Richard Brandenstein, Esq. and the entire law firm, we wish you, your families and friends a wonderful New Year, filled with life’s blessings: good health, much love, happiness, peace and prosperity.

As I sit at the computer this Friday evening, December 15, 2006, and compose the first Legal Report for 2007, I am happy to let you know that it has been an extremely successful year. There were many awards of accidental disability retirement benefits, along with approvals in claims for Social Security disability benefits and Workers’ Compensation benefits. Many personal injury claims were resolved as well, with several cases resulting in multi-million dollar awards. There were victories in Medical Review, but some disappointments also. On balance, our successes far exceeded the disappointments and we will do everything possible to continue this winning trend.

We are also aware that despite our best efforts and great investment in technology staff and office location, there are times when clients have complaints regarding some aspect of their case. We take these complaints very seriously, as does the PBA, and we do everything possible to correct the situation and make the matter right. Obviously, some things are beyond our control. For example, after you win your ¾ claim, there is a period of time before the Retirement System calculates the correct amount of your monthly disability check. We do not control that process and cannot speed it up. We try to make the procedure go as quickly as possible by providing all updated Workers’ Compensation figures and decisions to the Retirement System, but beyond that our role is limited. As another example, in the arena of Social Security disability benefits, the Jericho Hearing office is running about 24 months to get a hearing. We cannot change that. We do attempt to short circuit the wait by obtaining a fully favorable decision without waiting for the hearing and we have accomplished this in a great number of cases. When this “on the record” favorable decision process works, it’s a beautiful thing and everyone is delighted. However, we do not get an “on the record” favorable decision in every case, and when we don’t, then there is no other choice but to wait for the Office of Hearings and Appeals to schedule the hearing.

The PBA provides you with an extremely valuable benefit – your disability counsel. If you speak to people who hire private attorneys to do their disability cases, you will see that the charges are far, far greater than the fee charged by our firm. Not only that, but when you do use the PBA disability counsel disability claims from the NYS Retirement System, the PBA will reimburse you $250.00 towards the cost of medical evidence for your case. We value your business and we are honored to serve as the PBA’s disability counsel, which we have been doing since 1988. If you have any problems relating to our handling of your case, please make sure you let me know about it. Speaking of problems, there is another difficulty some members have encountered. There are members who were injured in the line of duty and received treatment in either an emergency room treatment in a hospital or in a doctor’s office. Because the injury was relatively minor, the police officer did not file a Workers’ Compensation claim. Some years go by and the officer then begins to get dunning letters from a collection agency for the cost of the ER of doctor’s treatment. The officer is understandably annoyed because since this was a line of duty injury, the County should be paying the bill. It is true that the County should be paying the bill. And, we could assist in accomplishing that, IF only the police officer had filed a Workers’ Compensation claim which would have generated a WCB (Workers’ Compensation Board) number. We could then get in touch with TRIAD, the Workers’ Compensation administrator for the County, and make sure the bill is paid ASAP. Without a WC claim being properly filed, it is difficult to get that bill paid as TRIAD has no case indexed for that police officer.

On November 27, 2006, Kevin Tobin, 2^nd VP, Jimmy McDermott, Sgt-at-Arms, Bobby Rettinger, 4^th Precinct Trustee, Dick Brandenstein, Esq., my partner, and I met with TRIAD GROUP members: Victoria E. Manes, Esq., President, Marie B. Kantor, 207 Medical Case Manager and Erin Coxen, Esq. For the sake of providing a complete report I would like to note that the food at Bacci in Westbury was very good. More importantly, the meeting was arranged by the PBA for the purpose of resolving some universal problems members have been having with Workers’ Comp cases, with the wait for authorization for surgery or diagnostic testing, such as an MRI or CT scan, or physical therapy being the most common. The meeting was very productive because Ms. Manes explained the causes for the delay. She also explained that TRIAD will grant authorization for any procedure that the office of the Chief Police Surgeon deems is needed. So, if you have an appointment with the Police Surgeon and you know your treating physician is looking to get an MRI done, do not hesitate to ask the Police Surgeon for authorization. TRIAD will honor the Police Surgeon’s recommendation that the procedure is needed. Similarly, if the Police Surgeon takes the position that a particular injury is not the result of a line of duty accident or a particular medical procedure is not required, TRIAD will controvert that claim or deny the request for authorization.

The PBA is very well aware that there are aspects of the Workers’ Compensation procedure that need repair. TRIAD indicated its willingness to do everything possible to make the system work better. One of the problems identified by TRIAD is that there are times requests for authorization come in and there is no case file to match up with that request. Bobby Rettinger is working on a solution to this problem, which may be to have the injured police officer call my office for assistance in completing Form C-3, which is the Workers’ Comp claim form, faxing the form to us and we would then submit it directly to TRIAD. I’ll provide more information on this in future Legal Reports. Bobby Rettinger has been the trustee spearheading the work on reforming the Workers’ Comp procedure to eliminate problems that members have alerted him to. Accordingly, if you do encounter a problem on your Workers’ Compensation claim, and if you are our client, please let us know. If you are not represented by counsel, please let the PBA know.

So, it is Friday night, December 15th. I have successfully survived the PBA, Guardians, 5^th, DAI, 4^th, 8^th, 7^th and 2^nd Christmas and Holiday Parties. Yet to come are the 1^st, 3^rd, SOA and 6^th precinct Christmas Parties. If I stay healthy, I intend to be at each of those also. Every one of the parties was extremely enjoyable, very satisfying and gratifying. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to attend these functions. I am even more grateful that my liver and kidneys continue to function, permitting me to physically be able to continue attending the parties. It really is a tough gig, but someone has to do it. Each of the parties has its own flair, its own personality, its own very special signature. I thought the PBA Christmas Party at the Uniondale Marriott was outstanding. As one cop described it, it was a “class affair.” The venue was very good – large enough, comfortable, clean restrooms, ample parking, good food and good service. The media display was terrific. I’m told that Ken Cortes had a lot to do with the media presentation and I think he did a superb job. It was a good way to focus the audience and provide some background on the honorees to a very large audience in a way that permitted us to not only hear it, but also see it.

At the PBA party, along with the precinct parties, I got to see and talk with clients I represented years and years ago. I met one retired cop who left the job 16 years ago with a ¾ pension. He still thanks me. At the DAI party, which typically was very well attended and an excellent networking opportunity, I spoke with a cop whose 207-c hearing I handled about 10 years ago and it was very nice to catch up. At the 8^th precinct party, I spoke with a client who gave me a very hard time at a prior party regarding some aspect of his Workers’ Comp claim, for which he profusely apologized. He still wanted me to look into the matter as, apparently, there was still some unresolved issue. Many people at the different parties came up to me, some of them recognizing me just from the picture that accompanies this Legal Report, to tell me they find the Legal Report very informative. I’m glad about that and I hope to keep it that way. At the 2^nd Precinct party, one of the cops told me the Legal Report was generally OK, but it was often "dry." Of course, being like most people, I prefer the praise to the criticism, but good, solid criticism is what can make this Legal Report an even more valuable source of information. . With this in mind, if you have any ideas for the Legal Report, any topics that you would like me to deal with please let me know what they are. You can call me at the office, or e-mail me or send me a letter at the office: 516-496-0400, ext. 4413; mrada@fbrlaw.com; or, 180 Froehlich Farm Blvd., Woodbury, NY 11797.

Again, best wishes for a happy, healthy and safe New Year.