We’re in favor of legal assistants righting wrongs…& making big money:
"Erin Brockovich, the resourceful legal assistant made famous by Hollywood’s depiction of her epic fight against Pacific Gas & Electric, now is going after two of San Diego’s largest hospital operators.
"She is the plaintiff in a pair of lawsuits filed recently in San Diego Superior Court that claim Scripps Health and Sharp HealthCare charged Medicare millions of dollars for fixing mistakes made by hospital staffers.
"The suits allege that the federal government’s health insurance program for the elderly wrongly paid for treating infections, injuries, botched operations and illnesses.
[snip]
"The San Diego cases are among 40 suits filed across the country in recent weeks by two law firms seeking to capitalize on a federal law that lets individuals sue on behalf of the federal government to recoup Medicare overpayments.
"The suits seek reimbursement of those costs to Medicare, an amount that could reach into the billions of dollars according to one calculation. That money could help offset some of the skyrocketing costs predicted for the health insurance program in the coming years, according to Brockovich’s lawyers.
[snip]
"Brockovich and the lawyers involved could pocket millions of dollars by sharing in reinbursement and damages ordered by the courts."
While your comment to The Estrin Report blog is appreciated, we’d like to point you to this lively Yahoo! Group for paralegal career advice: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ParalegalGateway
“I am a senior paralegal in a small office: consisting of a secretary, the attorney and me. These last 6 months or so there have been tensions in the office between my boss and myself due to my increasing workload and demanding hours in the office….”
Good luck!