Strategies to Enhance Cash Flow
Managing partners, financial partners, members of executive committees and administrators must devote more of their time today, than in the past, to planning and managing their firms' finances and those functions that improve the cash flow. Part One of this article described the first three of six aspects of law firm management and economics that the author has recommended to assist them in improving their firm's cash flow: 1) cash flow; 2) a business plan; 3) budgets for revenues, expenses and client advances. Part Two examines the remaining aspects: 4) partner compensation; 5) a recommended new business and billing committee; and 6) partners' capital and borrowing.
A Foreign Experience: Arbitrating Insurance Coverage Disputes in London
Many insurance policies now include arbitration provisions providing that disputes be arbitrated in London under the substantive law of New York. To policyholders, the "deck" in an international insurance arbitration appears to be stacked in favor of the insurance company, if only because the insurance company — a repeat player in London arbitrations — knows the results of its past arbitrations and the policyholder (and its counsel) likely does not. However, with careful strategy and preparation, a policyholder can prevail even in a "foreign experience" in international insurance arbitration.
Case Briefs
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
Fighting Back: Is Insurance Funding Doctors' Countersuits the Answer to Med Mal Crisis?
Increasingly alarmed by the real and imagined inequities of the medical malpractice system, physicians across the country have been looking everywhere for relief. They have lobbied for law reform at both state and federal levels, they have rallied and protested, and some have even gone "on strike." While their efforts have achieved some success — notably in states that have enacted severe damage caps, such as California and Indiana — malpractice insurance premiums have continued to rise, prompting repeated announcements that the medical profession is facing an economic crisis.
Is 'Medical Justice' the Magic Key?
Increasingly alarmed by the real and imagined inequities of the medical malpractice system, physicians across the country have been looking everywhere for relief. They have lobbied for law reform at both state and federal levels, they have rallied and protested, and some have even gone "on strike." With so much angst and anger among so many affluent professionals, it was only a matter of time before an astute entrepreneur figured out a way to cash in on the problem. Which brings us to Dr. Jeffrey Segal, a North Carolina neurosurgeon and the founder of a new insurance plan called "Medical Justice," which he promotes as a deterrent to malpractice litigation. It is an intriguing idea that just might work. Then again, it might only be a clever marketing ploy.
New EMTALA Regulations
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which imposes requirements on hospitals with emergency departments to screen and stabilize anyone who comes to the emergency department seeking treatment, can provide the basis for a private civil action against the hospital if a person is injured by the hospital's violation of its requirements. New regulations clarifying hospitals' obligations under EMTALA went into effect November 10, providing new guidance on how the federal agency charged with enforcing the statute interprets its terms.
Verdicts
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Deposing the Hospital's Librarian and Chief of Staff
As part of discovery, the attorney would want to determine the origin of a particular medical record and seek explanations for whatever spoliation has occurred, whether physical (destruction or absence of the record) or content spoliation (an inaccurate account of the medical care). The place to begin, then, is with those responsible for enforcing medical record rules and regulations: the Chief of Staff and the hospital medical record librarian.
