From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
Former clients of disbarred Eastern Kentucky attorney Eric C. Conn will have to wait a little longer to get access to files in his defunct office that might be of use in hearings on whether they’ll continue to receive disability benefits.
The Kentucky Bar Association refused to appoint a receiver for the files earlier, a federal prosecutor said in a court motion.
Because of the “complete abdication of responsibility by the KBA” for the files, prosecutor Darren L. McCullough asked U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves to appoint someone to take charge of getting the records to Conn’s former clients.
There are 6,000 to 8,000 files at the office, McCullough said in the motion.
Reeves scheduled a hearing on the request for Oct. 12.
The issue is important because the Social Security Administration last month began holding hearings on whether nearly 2,000 former clients of Conn will get to keep their disability benefits. ...
[T]he files in Conn’s former office may contain evidence from other medical professionals not suspected of wrongdoing, meaning it could still be used in proving eligibility, [Ned] Pillersdorf said.
Pillersdorf said he has learned that Conn did not file key medical evidence in many cases. ...
I am representing some of Conn's former clients. I've heard it from them. They gave Conn medical records but Conn never gave the records to Social Security. Conn had it all figured out. Why bother with traditional lawyering? Don't bother collecting your clients' medical records. Even if your clients give you copies of their records, don't do anything with them. Just send your clients to your own pet physicians and psychologists and submit only those records. That way was so much easier for Conn.
I and other attorneys can now try to collect old medical records on Conn's former clients but it's tough. Our clients' memories have dimmed. They may not remember all the doctors they saw years ago. Some of those medical practices have gone out of business in the intervening years. We need access to Conn's old files.
I and other attorneys can now try to collect old medical records on Conn's former clients but it's tough. Our clients' memories have dimmed. They may not remember all the doctors they saw years ago. Some of those medical practices have gone out of business in the intervening years. We need access to Conn's old files.
I'm not a member of the Kentucky bar so I hate to criticize the KBA but I will. They've been completely irresponsible. I'd like to think Conn couldn't have happened in North Carolina but if he had, I'm certain the N.C State Bar would have behaved far differently than the KBA. When even the prosecutors are more sympathetic to Conn's former clients than the KBA, something is wrong.
Why is Social Security plowing ahead with hearings when they know that Conn's former clients can't get access to their files?
Why is Social Security plowing ahead with hearings when they know that Conn's former clients can't get access to their files?
16 comments:
Because there is more than one set of records and a simple medical record request will pull the missing documents and get them in the file.
It's disgraceful. There's something rotten in the KBA.
As an aside, I find it interesting that prosecutors and Mr. Pillersdorf spread the narrative that Conn had a massive bonfire and burned these files, but here they are, pristine and sitting in his office.
9:36 AM, do you work for the agency? Have you ever actually made a request for medical records to a recalcitrant provider? They don't keep records forever. Most of these records have been purged by the facilities.
Feel horrible for these Conn clients. The damage this person has done just keeps getting worse. Smh.
10:25 you really dont know what you are doing, do you? If the records are that dated why would they be on file? are you telling me you keep client records forever?
@9:36 If you needed records from the neurologist I saw five years ago, you are SOL. He closed his practice and retired and had sent out a letter giving people 90 days to get a copy of their records or they would be shredded. If somehow a Conn client had been a patient thought they had been submitted, those records are gone never to be found again unless he did keep them.
We are averaging something like 20 hospitals closing their doors for good each year. I'd bet a rural state like Kentucky has had at least one closure since the final years of his "practice".
4:37...read the post. The dated records would be in the file because the Conn redeterminations focus on 2007-2009 favorables. I do not keep records forever. I purge after a number of years set by my state bar. Medical providers are no different, and that's my point. You can't just execute a "simple" new medical records request like you suggested and make the problem go away.
"That way was so much easier for Conn."
This seems to suggest that Conn's practice of using bogus examinations was simply more convenient than collecting and deciphering legitimate existing medical evidence, but that the evidence once gathered and deciphered would have led to the same favorable outcome. An equally plausible explanation is that clients presented medical records that supported unfavorable decisions, or that Conn's practice chose not to take a chance on what those records would contain when they knew what the bogus exam records would say. More likely, the records are a mix of information for and against disability, but it would be interesting to get a better idea of what's actually in those files, and how it was organized and coded -- remember color-coded stickers designating evidence to be withheld from SSA?
I have often compared what Conn did to paying bribes to the mob as a cost of business in New York for truckers 50 years ago. With Daugherty's approval rates, he obviously wasn't too difficult to convince. I think ConnConn's clients were probably similar to any other Rep's in the area . SSA has used Conn to smear Reps and clients alike , while mostly ignoring that it was their ALJ who made it all possible!
9:19 - Yep. Mr. Cowboy Hat Binder did that, but we don't see him in an 8x8 cell...
So 6:26 basically what you are complaining about is the fact that someone, not you, isn't going to have a medical record, that should have been properly destroyed, from a lawyer that didn't submit or use the evidence, in favor of evidence that showed only the disability? And your main concern is that it isn't easy to get the old real evidence, which may show no medical support of disability?
Wouldn't the current medical records show continuing treatment of the disabling condition? Much like a redetermination? Or are you just complaining and trying to find any excuse that you can?
BRAVO Tim!!! Not saying Conn is a saint, but how you gonna give the corrupt ALJ who INDUCED the whole thing (this is uncontested by all parties) a lousy four years in a medical facility? The SSA crucified Conn for its own sins.
SSA didn't "crucify" Conn. SSA didn't do anything to Conn except bar him from practicing before the Agency and even then not until after he was convicted and disbarred by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
9:32, I was responding to 4:37, who clearly misunderstands the predicament these clients are in. Clearly, you do too - these hearings only focus on a narrow period of time (from around 2007-2009). The ALJs will not admit or consider current records.
1:17, fine. A better analogy is that of Pontius Pilate. SSA could have corroborated the stories of Carver and Griffith instead of covering for management. SSA could have disciplined Daugherty long before they did. Instead, when WSJ framed Conn as the mastermind of it all, SSA stayed silent. Washed its hands of the whole thing, so to speak. You'll never convince me that there are top-brass people in SSA who should have been charged and were not.
They bought their tickets,
They knew what they were getting into,
I say let'em crash!
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