Private Attorneys Team Up To Aid Nhla On $1.2 Million Medicaid Dental Settlement
THREE BAR MEMBERS contributed their considerable expertise in complex litigation and mediation to help New Hampshire Legal Assistance reach an accord with the state of New Hampshire that avoids a costly trial and obtains better access to dental care for NH families on Medicaid.
Semi-retired attorney John Bomster worked on the Hawkins Medicaid class-action case with NHLA litigation director Ken Barnes and other members of the NHLA litigation team, including Kay Drought, Karen Rosenberg, and private attorney Randy Reis.
New Hampshire Legal Assistance brought the class action, Cassandra Hawkins, et. al. v. Commissioner of the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, in 1999 on behalf mothers who alleged that they could not obtain dental care for their Medicaid-eligible children.
Two years of intense litigation and trial preparation, followed by two years of equally intense settlement discussions and mediation, produced a 30-page consent decree, approved in January by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph A. DiClerico, Jr. The accord embraces three key provisions:
The state must spend an additional $1.2 million yearly on children’s dental care (the length of this commitment is the subject of a post-settlement motion);
DHHS workers must in fact ensure dentists that treat low-income children;
The state must provide data and reports to allow NHLA to monitor the state’s progress.
The decree is unusual in its specificity; for example – after a one-year start up period, the decree requires that DHHS workers find a dentist for any class member after the family has made a maximum of 12 timely and unsuccessful calls to dental offices.
Along the way, the team of NHLA staff attorneys, Kay E. Drought, Kenneth J. Barnes, and Karen L. Rosenberg, had critical help from three very committed low-income mothers, and from private attorneys Randolph J. Reis, now at Hall Stewart in Manchester, and John F. Bomster, of Bristol, a semi-retired veteran of complex litigation cases all across the country.
“We’re not that big a show,” said NHLA director John Tobin, describing his team of 18 attorneys in four offices throughout the state. NHLA typically represents individual low-income clients in individual cases covering the gamut of public benefits and private, income-based discrimination. Impact litigation, like the Hawkins class action is a stretch for NHLA, according to Tobin.
“We don’t have any lack of lawyer talent, but we have a constant, everyday demand for our regular work, and there is a definite impact when we pull lawyers away from that work for big cases,” Tobin said. Also critical is NHLA’s lack of key trial resources – extra paralegal staffers, and an expense budget for witness fees and other costs.
“This case happened because our team [NHLA staff attorneys] basically gave up their lives for a long time,” Tobin said. “I can’t say enough about Randy Reis and John Bomster; this was a great and wonderful partnership. They both made a huge difference in our ability to do this case.”
Randolph Reis: Plaintiff’s Lawyer Helps Prep for Trial
Working nearly full-time on the Hawkins case for six months, Reis brought 23 years’ experience as a personal injury plaintiff’s lawyer. He also brought a renewed passion for litigation, returning to law after a four-year absence precipitated by the death of his wife, Janet, in 1999.
“I left my firm [Abramson, Reis, Brown & Dugan] to care for her,” Reis said. “After she died, I wasn’t comfortable continuing with litigation, and I thought I was done practicing law.”
But time spent building hiking trails, doing substitute teaching and coaching in Concord-area schools, and volunteering for CASA brought the practice of law back into focus for Reis. “There was a lot of introspection going on during that period,” Reis said. “I realized that I missed law more than I thought I would, and that I had a lot of experience that I didn’t want to go to waste – I realized that I had gotten a lot of satisfaction out of my previous work.”
Reis called NHLA to offer his services, hoping to test his renewed sense of commitment to the practice of law.
Tobin welcomed him with open arms. “Randy came to us at an opportune time,” Tobin remembers.
“The court had just put the Hawkins case on a full-tilt trial schedule.” Reis brought a wealth of experience in witness preparation, depositions, document review and general trial preparation. His specific task was to recruit and work with local and national dental experts, though he also reviewed and commented on most the Hawkins documents as they came and went. Reis also contributed “a wonderful, calm demeanor,” Tobin said. “His presence really boosted the morale of the Hawkins team.”
In turn, exposure to the NHLA staff helped Reis parse a big-firm conundrum, which he articulates as: “How do you stay focused on helping people without getting caught up in making money for the firm?”
“My NHLA experience showed me how people can devote their lives to helping the needy with no thought of personal gain and derive personal satisfaction from that,” Reis said, “and I really enjoyed working with the many intelligent and caring dentists in New Hampshire and across the country who volunteered their time to be witnesses, some of whom are among the leading experts in their fields.”
As it became clear that the Hawkins case would be resolved through the consent decree, Reis turned back to the private sector, joining the Hall Stewart firm in Manchester. “I really enjoyed the people at NHLA, and the satisfaction of helping solve a problem that clearly needed to be solved,” Reis said. “The NHLA lawyers are examples of dedicated professionals with considerable intelligence and skills who set the highest standards of advocacy for their clients.”
Bar News – February 20, 2004
By: Deborah A. Fauver (reprinted with permission)
