Foley & Mansfield Attorney Provides HIPAA Compliance
Knowledge in Michigan Lawyers Weekly

        Foley & Mansfield Detroit Attorney Jana Berger provided her HIPAA compliance expertise to Michigan Lawyers Weekly in the December 5, 2005 issue. The topic related to the changing ground rules for defense lawyers who want to meet ex parte with plaintiffs' treating physicians based on a recent Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) pre-empts Michigan law on the subject. Read more…

        According to the December 5, 2005, issue of Michigan Lawyers Weekly, “In Belote v. Strange, the Court of Appeals held that, even though Michigan law specifically permitted ex parte meetings between defense counsel and a plaintiff's physician, defense counsel's ex parte meeting with the plaintiff's physician was unlawful because it failed to comply with the requirements of HIPAA.
While experts agree that discovery practice in its current form will be drastically altered if the court's reasoning is ultimately adopted by the rest of the Court of Appeals — not to mention the Michigan Supreme Court — no consensus has emerged as to whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

        HIPAA compliance expert Jana M. Berger of Bingham Farms criticized the ruling for its inevitable effect of disturbing the delicate and proper balance that was established by the Michigan Supreme Court's decision in Domako v. Rowe.

        "Belote stands for the proposition that defense counsel's ex parte meeting with a plaintiff's physician to discuss that plaintiff's medical history or health status is now deemed an improper method of discovery," she declared. "This is an un-leveling of the playing field, as it is presumed that the plaintiffs' bar not only will have the continued benefit of conducting ex parte meetings with their clients' physicians, but also will now have a mechanism to thwart similar discovery efforts by the defense bar."’

        To read full article, please visit Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

        Foley & Mansfield Attorney Jamie Habeck Participates on William Mitchell Panel

        Foley & Mansfield Minneapolis Attorney Jamie Habeck participated on a panel discussing career options for attorneys. Habeck, who has worked as an assistant city attorney and as an attorney at a small law firm before joining Foley & Mansfield, was able to speak about her work in all three environments. Speaking to over 100 William Mitchell College of Law students in November, she was joined by a Cargill corporate attorney, a public defender, a Minnesota AIDS Project attorney, and an attorney from a large firm.

        Founded in 1989, Foley & Mansfield is fast becoming one of the nation’s leading litigation law firms. Its attorneys serve clients ranging in size from multi-million dollar corporations to small businesses and their owners in a wide range of civil litigation matters, including commercial litigation, construction law, employment litigation, environmental and pollution claims, insurance coverage matters, intellectual property, probate and trust, and product liability litigation, as well as commercial transactions and bankruptcy. The firm is headquartered in Minneapolis and has additional offices in Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, St. Louis and San Francisco.