What is this lawsuit about?
September 24, 2018 2:01 PM Subscribe
My ex-boss got himself embroiled in a lawsuit that I don't get.
It's over now, but at the time it was really stressing him out and scaring him. I didn't understand why and still don't. It's public record. I don't work there anymore, but friends of mine still do and they're interested in why the boss never wants to talk about it and tries to hide it. They're worried it's something that might affect them in the future.
I'm assuming this worry they have is only coming from the boss's way of dealing with the issue. He was really scared and bothered by the lawsuit at the time for one thing and it didn't seem like the kind of thing that should. So I'm guessing this probably made people nervous, but I don't know because I don't even understand what the big deal was that the company had to get SUED.
It's over now, but at the time it was really stressing him out and scaring him. I didn't understand why and still don't. It's public record. I don't work there anymore, but friends of mine still do and they're interested in why the boss never wants to talk about it and tries to hide it. They're worried it's something that might affect them in the future.
I'm assuming this worry they have is only coming from the boss's way of dealing with the issue. He was really scared and bothered by the lawsuit at the time for one thing and it didn't seem like the kind of thing that should. So I'm guessing this probably made people nervous, but I don't know because I don't even understand what the big deal was that the company had to get SUED.
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I don't know what was stressful for your boss here and won't without more information, but this is not a lawsuit in which the company in question was sued; this is a lawsuit in which the company in question sued the state and lost, on a simple procedural issue. Are you sure you have the right lawsuit? A quick search doesn't turn up anything on the open net with the company in question as defendant...
If your boss works for the state agency described here (not the company) then being sued for Medicaid reimbursement is just a normal part of the job and I can't figure out why it would be unusually stressful.
posted by peppercorn at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018
If your boss works for the state agency described here (not the company) then being sued for Medicaid reimbursement is just a normal part of the job and I can't figure out why it would be unusually stressful.
posted by peppercorn at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018
What you've linked to is a court's opinion granting a defendant's motion to dismiss a plaintiff's complaint. By its nature this kind of order isn't very concerned with the truth of the plaintiff's allegations, just whether or not the case has merit from a legal perspective. Since this case was dismissed, the court didn't think the complaint was valid, based on immunity and lack of plaintiff's standing (this based on a 30-second scan).
Your boss may not want to talk about the case since his side may have "won" by getting it dismissed, that doesn't necessarily bar further legal action, nor prove that there was no wrongdoing.
posted by skewed at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Your boss may not want to talk about the case since his side may have "won" by getting it dismissed, that doesn't necessarily bar further legal action, nor prove that there was no wrongdoing.
posted by skewed at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
You mention the company getting sued, but it was the company, Future Care Consultants, LLC, that was the plaintiff in this case that launched the suit against the government (New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services and New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services).
Does that jive with what you understand to have happened?
posted by sardonyx at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018
Does that jive with what you understand to have happened?
posted by sardonyx at 2:15 PM on September 24, 2018
Without knowing which named entity in the document is your former boss/employer, I can't speak to the reasons why he'd be worried about this particular case. Skimming said particular case, I'd say that the big deal was that someone thought money should be paid (in this case, in the form of Medicaid benefits) and they were denied. Outside of the appeal process for the plaintiff, through which they were denied, a legal suit was what they were left with. So they sued. That's the only card they had left to play.
What I can speak to, though, is the mental burden that dealing with a court case for work can leave you with. Getting sued, or having to testify in a case where someone is sued, sucks. I know someone who had to testify in a case where a former employee was suing. He'd done everything by the book, and gone above and beyond to try to get the situation figured out, but the former employee disagreed. So there's prep time with lawyers, documentation to review, and sitting in court knowing that no matter how much he'd tried, how much he'd done things by the book, there's a guy sitting across the aisle who disagreed.
For some people, getting sued and jumping through legal hoops and court time is a normal part of business. For the rest of us, it's an intimidating and sometimes anxiety-inducing endeavor. When it comes down to it in the case you linked, someone in the courtroom was being held accountable for denying an old lady's medical expenses. The decision may not have even been in their hands! That's stressful and not exactly a topic you'd feel comfortable talking about.
posted by mikeh at 2:17 PM on September 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
What I can speak to, though, is the mental burden that dealing with a court case for work can leave you with. Getting sued, or having to testify in a case where someone is sued, sucks. I know someone who had to testify in a case where a former employee was suing. He'd done everything by the book, and gone above and beyond to try to get the situation figured out, but the former employee disagreed. So there's prep time with lawyers, documentation to review, and sitting in court knowing that no matter how much he'd tried, how much he'd done things by the book, there's a guy sitting across the aisle who disagreed.
For some people, getting sued and jumping through legal hoops and court time is a normal part of business. For the rest of us, it's an intimidating and sometimes anxiety-inducing endeavor. When it comes down to it in the case you linked, someone in the courtroom was being held accountable for denying an old lady's medical expenses. The decision may not have even been in their hands! That's stressful and not exactly a topic you'd feel comfortable talking about.
posted by mikeh at 2:17 PM on September 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
As for why he was so stressed about this particular case, assuming he'd been party to such cases before, there could be any number of reasons. Maybe he personally disagreed with the rules or his employer's stance but had to go with it as their representative. Maybe the attorney for the plaintiff was a complete dick in court. Even people who deal in the courts regularly have bad cases.
posted by mikeh at 2:20 PM on September 24, 2018
posted by mikeh at 2:20 PM on September 24, 2018
Not being an expert in this area, it looks like the claims made by plaintiff were shaky, at best. Perhaps he was conscious of that and unhappy about it. But, generally, most people don't enjoy being involved in lawsuits. They are time-consuming. Depositions can eat up days of your life and are very stressful. While most of the hostility should be batted back and forth by counsel in corporate matters, it can leak through. I've never seen anyone's quality of life be improved by a lawsuit they didn't bring themselves (and not all of them, either!).
posted by praemunire at 2:27 PM on September 24, 2018
posted by praemunire at 2:27 PM on September 24, 2018
Response by poster: Thing is the company gets into legal battles all the time for years so we didn't understand why his reaction to this one that happened within the last year seemed different. Either I didn't find the right lawsuit or perhaps as already suggested he simply had too much going on at the time and it was just a coincidence.
posted by fantasticness at 2:39 PM on September 24, 2018
posted by fantasticness at 2:39 PM on September 24, 2018
Wait, so - this dude worked for the NJ DHS, right? And apparently denied this woman's Medicaid claim, leading to this company to file suit.
If that's how it went, here's a possible reason the guy was/is so nervous about this suit.
Future Care asserts that the denial of Medicaid benefits was erroneous and that the process from which the denial resulted violated [_____]'s Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the United States Constitution, as well as her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA has a clause that you almost never see in the law. It permits individuals acting on behalf of their employer to be held personally liable if they are found to have violated a person's rights under the ADA. In other words, if the injured party prevails, they may not only collect damages from the company/institution/government that violated their rights, but also from the individual(s) who were directly involved in that.
Looking at the date of the decision, it might be possible that this woman's family can still file another suit that directly raises the alleged ADA discrimination by denying her Medicaid, and if so, this guy you know might still be exposed to that personal liability. Hence his unease.
posted by Lunaloon at 4:19 PM on September 24, 2018
If that's how it went, here's a possible reason the guy was/is so nervous about this suit.
Future Care asserts that the denial of Medicaid benefits was erroneous and that the process from which the denial resulted violated [_____]'s Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the United States Constitution, as well as her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA has a clause that you almost never see in the law. It permits individuals acting on behalf of their employer to be held personally liable if they are found to have violated a person's rights under the ADA. In other words, if the injured party prevails, they may not only collect damages from the company/institution/government that violated their rights, but also from the individual(s) who were directly involved in that.
Looking at the date of the decision, it might be possible that this woman's family can still file another suit that directly raises the alleged ADA discrimination by denying her Medicaid, and if so, this guy you know might still be exposed to that personal liability. Hence his unease.
posted by Lunaloon at 4:19 PM on September 24, 2018
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posted by lunasol at 2:04 PM on September 24, 2018