Author: JGL Law

Principal Timothy F. Maloney was a featured speaker at several educational sessions this past week at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting.

TRUMPING HOME RULE – IS THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TAKING BACK HOME RULE PIECE BY PIECE?  Maloney examined the purpose of Home Rule for counties and municipalities in Maryland and discussed some recent examples of the narrowing of Home Rule by the General Assembly and the Courts through express preemption, conflict preemption, and implied preemption. 

SMALL FIRMS HANDLING CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIMS.  Maloney spoke alongside attorney Kathleen Cahill about constitutional torts, and its’ advantages and disadvantages. The session aimed to inform attending attorneys, as well as to open a debate on the topic.

LEGISLATIVE WRAP UP WITH TIM MALONEY. A classic, funny, and substantively compelling wrap up of current legislation and the impact on many practice areas. Everyone loved hearing Tim do his thing!

The annual meeting was held in Ocean City, MD and spanned the course of four days. The event also included a reception for new Maryland judges and several other educational sessions.

The United Health Services v. Escobar decision jolted False Claims litigation nationwide. Click below for Brian and other attorney’s opinions one year later 

He has been selected 10 years in a row. Only 5% of attorneys receive this honor each year. 

Walter Laake is a founding member of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake. A preeminent personal injury lawyer with more than four decades of experience, Walter has obtained millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for injured clients. Among his recent victories, Walter obtained a $1-million recovery on behalf of a disabled father of four in a medical malpractice action, and a $4.5-million settlement with a DC hospital for the family of an infant who suffered brain injury due to a doctor’s negligence. Throughout his career, Walter’s work has established many important legal principles that protect the rights of injured people. For example, in the 1970s, Walter litigated the first case in Maryland that applied strict liability to a product liability case.

Click below for more on Walter. 

Only 5% of attorneys receive this designation each year. Steven has been selected 9 times. 

A principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Civil Litigation Practice Group, Steve Pavsner has nearly four decades of experience in litigating a wide range of complex civil cases, including business litigation and professional negligence cases, such as medical, legal, architectural, accounting, engineering, and psychiatric malpractice. Steve is particularly passionate about his work in the area of legal malpractice. He believes the law is a noble profession, and takes it personally when attorneys betray their clients’ trust.

Click below for more on Steven.

 

 

The second-highest-ranking official of the Justice Department was a the subject of a Trump Tweet on Friday. Timothy Maloney was quoted on his potential next move. Click below for the full article. 

More and more frequently, lawyers for workers now say, employers are evading the legal requirement to pay overtime to their employees by choosing to pay them what they a salary instead of an hourly wage, and then telling the employees that they are not entitled to overtime because they have an “exempt” job title.

Brian J. Markovitz of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake in Greenbelt, Md. and his co-counsel in the case, R. Andrew Santillo of Winebrake & Santillo in Dresher, Pa., recently obtained judgements with Illinois-based Heartland Dental, LLC, on behalf of three plaintiffs – all of them workers who were improperly denied overtime pay by the company.

In June 2016, Markovitz and Santillo filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland charging Heartland Dental with violating the law by denying overtime pay, which is normally “time-and-a-half” of their regular pay, to the salaried office managers that it hires to work in dental offices.

Heartland Dental is a company that provides office managers, marketing personnel, IT workers, and other support staff to dentists across the country. It works with more than 750 dental offices and pays the workers directly.

The lawsuit alleges that Heartland Dental violated federal overtime law by classifying so-called “S,” or salaried office managers in dental offices, as exempt from receiving overtime premium pay (or “time-and-a-half” pay) when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

According to the complaint, the duties and level of supervision of the “S” office managers were precisely identical to those of other office managers who were being paid hourly and were receiving overtime pay. Accordingly, the lawsuit states, Heartland violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit seeks damages, penalties and litigation costs from Heartland Dental.

“We are very pleased that Heartland Dental chose to settle with three plaintiffs on satisfactory terms,” Markovitz said. “But there are many more office managers who were improperly denied overtime pay, and we hope they will come forward as well.”

The lawsuit was filed as a collective action on behalf of all people who worked as salaried office managers for Heartland Dental any time after June 16, 2013. 

Congratulatrions to Burt, who has been honored with this designation 9 times. 

For the past 40 years, Mr. Kahn has advocated on behalf of personal injury and medical malpractice victims and their families, securing millions of dollars in settlements and awards for his clients. Known for his determination at asserting his clients’ rights while subverting the defendants’ arguments, Mr. Kahn has established himself as a formidable litigator who gets results. Through his success, he has earned the respect of both his clients and peers as evidenced by his numerous awards, honors and referrals.

For more on Burt click the image below. 

The Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation hosted the 1st annual Women’s Excellence in Leadership Luncheon. The theme was, Yes! You can have it all!, and the event focused on recognizing and inspiring powerful women in Prince George’s county and nearby communities. The luncheon included a panel discussion and a keynote address by international speaker and success strategist, Dr. Gloria Mayfield Banks.

Joseph, Greenwald & Laake sponsored the luncheon along with other organizations, including Prince George’s Community College and the University of Maryland. The luncheon was held last Thursday at MGM National Harbor. Attendees consisted of prominent businesswomen and lawyers from both Maryland and DC, including our very own, Eleanor Hunt.

She spoke with the magazine regarding how IoT devices can impact the future of criminal law. Benevento offered her insight on how she uses IoT data both professionally and personally, saying, “Law enforcement, and civilians alike, can use this data for their benefit.”

Technology has impacted our world in many ways, including the way we practice law. Street cameras and home security cameras can catch criminal activity, and smartphone evidence can be used in court. Or maybe you’ve heard the story of Richard Debate, the man who was charged for his wife’s murder after information from her Fitbit contradicted his testimony.

To read the full article, click below 

 

He argued against the approval of a new cardiac program in Anne Arundel County. He stated it would cause “irreparable harm” to the recently approved Prince George’s Regional Medical Center. Judge Beverly Woodard agreed. Click below for more information. 

Timothy F. Maloney was quoted on behalf of Prince George’s Hospital Center against the development of a new cardiac surgery program at Anne Arundel Medical Center in both The Capital News Gazette and The Baltimore Sun.

Maloney and other lawyers representing Dimensions Healthcare System, the parent company of PGHC, have asked Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Beverly Woodard for a stay of proceedings, arguing that a new cardiac surgery program at AAMC would cause “irreparable harm” to the program already in place at PGHC.

“Don’t believe for a moment this won’t be hurting Prince George’s County,” said Dimensions counsel Timothy Maloney of a cardiac surgery program at AAMC. “I don’t think (PGHC) will be able to overcome this challenge.”

Should Woodard approve the stay, which would last around three months, there will be a judicial review of the state health care commission’s decision to approve the program.  Woodard said that she will make a decision by Friday.

Federal government employees are often in an excellent position to know about waste, fraud and abuse in government programs and to quietly inform others of what they know in order to punish wrongdoing, spur change and save the government vast sums of money. When they inform Congress, for example, about potentially illegal or wasteful practices in their agencies, federal employees are acting as whistleblowers – and they are protected under their own whistleblower statutes.

In a letter that they sent on May 4, 2017, to Thomas E. Price, secretary of Health and Human Services, two Republican legislators took aim at a memorandum that was issued to HHS employees the day before that they say may have a chilling effect on whistleblowers within that department. The memorandum says that all contacts with Congress by department employees must be cleared through the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Legislation.

The authors of the scathing letter are Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 

The letter notes, “Federal employees will most certainly read this instruction as a prohibition against direct communications with Congress without permission. As such, it is potentially illegal and unconstitutional, and will likely chill protected disclosures of waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The letter refers to a 1912 statute, which is still in effect, that specifically protects federal employees’ rights “to petition Congress or a Member of Congress, or to furnish information to either House of Congress, or to a committee thereof.” It also refers to the “Grassley anti-gag rider,” a provision of law enacted in the 1980s that also protects government employees’ rights to speak out.

The letter notes that the internal HHS memorandum “contains no exception whatsoever for lawful, protected communications with Congress. In its current form, employees are likely to interpret it as a prohibition, and will not necessarily understand their rights. The Grassley anti-gag rider and the associated [Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act] provision are designed to ensure that employees understand that any such agency policy does not supersede the protections afforded them by statute and the Constitution. These provisions are significant because they ensure that attention can be brought to problems in the Executive Branch that need to be fixed. Protecting whistleblowers who courageously speak out is not a partisan issue — it is critical to the functioning of our government.”

The department has not yet responded to the May 4 letter. We will be watching for a response in the interest of ensuring that the rights of federal government whistleblowers remain fully protected.

The letter to Secretary Price can be found here, and a May 9, 2017, article on the subject from the Washington Post can be found here.