The Deposition
Dr. G had to go through with a deposition this evening on a Phen-fen patient he had treated several years ago. I have fretted and fumed over this deposition for weeks now. It has literally been a nightmare; I see the word ‘attorney,’ and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end–that’s how bad it is.
Hot-shot Attorney from Washington, D.C., legal representative for the pharmaceutical company, called several weeks ago and scheduled the deposition for this afternoon, December 8. The law requires them to notify the other side of the deposition to allow them to also be present. Well, our experience in the past with attorneys has been that if you don’t get your fee up front, you may as well kiss it good-bye. So Kris consults other physicians’ offices as to what the going rate is for a deposition, and as we are not too keen on doing it in the first place, we decide to go on the high side and charge $1000 up front. A paper is drafted notifying the firm of the fee and the terms by which it shall be collected. It is faxed to the attorney. Well, Gopher Boy for the D.C. attorney calls and tells me that the fee is too much <pregnant pause>.
“That’s fine,” I said. “So you’d like to cancel?” (Hoping.) That was obviously not the expected response he had been hoping for. “No. The attorney told me to tell you that he will pay $500/hour, and if you don’t accept it, he can subpoena you, and you’ll get paid a lot less than that.”
Is that a threat? I think it was. Oh well. I told him I would check with the doc and see what he wanted to do. We ended up just accepting their approved fee.
So fast forward to the Wednesday afternoon just prior to Thanksgiving. Gopher Boy calls me and tells me that they will have an attorney in the area on Monday anyway and would we by any chance be able accommodate them by rescheduling the depo to that date. Dr. G didn’t care, so I called him back and told him we would be willing to do it then. I asked him if the other side would be able to make it by then because we did NOT want to have to do this depo twice. “We are only required to give them three days’ notice,” he said, “and we’ll take care of that this afternoon.” And thus, it was rescheduled.
Monday morning rolls around. I get a call from the Houston attorney, legal representative for the patient. He tells me that he is royally ticked (to put it politely) because he had just checked his email that morning and had thereby gotten his notice from the D.C. attorney, telling him that the depo had been moved up to that afternoon. The email had apparently arrived after they had left on Wednesday afternoon for their extended holiday weekend. No flight arrangements that could still be made could get him here for the scheduled deposition. He told me that he had filed an emergency order to quash the deposition, but the judge wouldn’t even be able to sign it until well after the deposition was scheduled to start. He said he would check into some things and call me back.
In the meantime, the D.C. attorney calls and says he will probably be late as he is flying in bad weather. He wanted to know if the doc would be available later, but we didn’t know.
Later that afternoon, Houston Attorney calls me back and tells me that the D.C. attorney agreed to cancel and go back to the original scheduled date of December 8. Fine by me. The Houston Attorney told me it was fine to even go ahead and cancel the stenographer. So I did.
Well, unfortunately, that was not the end of it. The Houston Attorney called me back even later and said that the D.C. firm was not amused that we had canceled the stenographer, and because they had given three days’ notice, they were going to proceed with the deposition as planned if they could get their attorney here and if Dr. G would still be available. So the Houston Attorney then resorted to begging ME not to let it happen. Talk about pressure!
I briefed Dr. G on the situation–no easy task. My personal opinion of the whole thing was that the D.C. Attorney had played the situation a little dirty, and therefore, I thought it should be canceled and rescheduled for the original date. So I begged the doc to just leave and go somewhere unreachable. He obliged, thank goodness. But then the D.C. Attorney called and said he had been rerouted to Atlanta, and he would not, in fact, be able to make it. Praise God! So the depo was officially rescheduled to the original date.
Fast forward to today, December 8.
Houston Attorney showed up at least an hour and a half early. He wanted to make sure he was here, I guess. When the D.C. attorney arrived about an hour later, I retreated to my office. I could hear most of what was being said out in the lobby. There were some heated exchanges going on, to be sure, and while it didn’t come down to physical blows, it was easy to see that the tone was not one of friendliness. I stayed out of sight as much as possible.
As the time of the scheduled depo drew nearer, I had this feeling the doc, who was making hospital rounds, was going to be late. And sure enough, he showed up about fifteen minutes late. And to top it all off, it had been raining, and the doc had had no raincoat. So he improvised, of course. He showed up in a big black garbage bag.
I had set up everything back in his office, and the attorneys, as well as the stenographer, were waiting to begin. I met him at the door to apprise him of the goings on, and I was a little alarmed when he took off for the office in his newly-acquired rain garb. I don’t know what rule it violates, but I’m certain it is not fashionable to show up at a deposition in a black garbage bag. “You might want to take your bag off,” I whispered. He ignored me and proudly marched off to show the two very uninterested attorneys his clever new wardrobe. I decided to just give it up.
I stayed as far away from the office as possible, although at one point, Dee and I peered through the crack in the door down the hall so that we could watch the stenographer. The stenographer was fascinating. She could type as fast as the conversation, about 165 words per minute. She, of course, has a special machine–not a regular keyboard. When I left at 5:00, they were still going strong. And from the sounds of it, the debate was heated and very intense.
I do not like depositions!!
Hot-shot Attorney from Washington, D.C., legal representative for the pharmaceutical company, called several weeks ago and scheduled the deposition for this afternoon, December 8. The law requires them to notify the other side of the deposition to allow them to also be present. Well, our experience in the past with attorneys has been that if you don’t get your fee up front, you may as well kiss it good-bye. So Kris consults other physicians’ offices as to what the going rate is for a deposition, and as we are not too keen on doing it in the first place, we decide to go on the high side and charge $1000 up front. A paper is drafted notifying the firm of the fee and the terms by which it shall be collected. It is faxed to the attorney. Well, Gopher Boy for the D.C. attorney calls and tells me that the fee is too much <pregnant pause>.
“That’s fine,” I said. “So you’d like to cancel?” (Hoping.) That was obviously not the expected response he had been hoping for. “No. The attorney told me to tell you that he will pay $500/hour, and if you don’t accept it, he can subpoena you, and you’ll get paid a lot less than that.”
Is that a threat? I think it was. Oh well. I told him I would check with the doc and see what he wanted to do. We ended up just accepting their approved fee.
So fast forward to the Wednesday afternoon just prior to Thanksgiving. Gopher Boy calls me and tells me that they will have an attorney in the area on Monday anyway and would we by any chance be able accommodate them by rescheduling the depo to that date. Dr. G didn’t care, so I called him back and told him we would be willing to do it then. I asked him if the other side would be able to make it by then because we did NOT want to have to do this depo twice. “We are only required to give them three days’ notice,” he said, “and we’ll take care of that this afternoon.” And thus, it was rescheduled.
Monday morning rolls around. I get a call from the Houston attorney, legal representative for the patient. He tells me that he is royally ticked (to put it politely) because he had just checked his email that morning and had thereby gotten his notice from the D.C. attorney, telling him that the depo had been moved up to that afternoon. The email had apparently arrived after they had left on Wednesday afternoon for their extended holiday weekend. No flight arrangements that could still be made could get him here for the scheduled deposition. He told me that he had filed an emergency order to quash the deposition, but the judge wouldn’t even be able to sign it until well after the deposition was scheduled to start. He said he would check into some things and call me back.
In the meantime, the D.C. attorney calls and says he will probably be late as he is flying in bad weather. He wanted to know if the doc would be available later, but we didn’t know.
Later that afternoon, Houston Attorney calls me back and tells me that the D.C. attorney agreed to cancel and go back to the original scheduled date of December 8. Fine by me. The Houston Attorney told me it was fine to even go ahead and cancel the stenographer. So I did.
Well, unfortunately, that was not the end of it. The Houston Attorney called me back even later and said that the D.C. firm was not amused that we had canceled the stenographer, and because they had given three days’ notice, they were going to proceed with the deposition as planned if they could get their attorney here and if Dr. G would still be available. So the Houston Attorney then resorted to begging ME not to let it happen. Talk about pressure!
I briefed Dr. G on the situation–no easy task. My personal opinion of the whole thing was that the D.C. Attorney had played the situation a little dirty, and therefore, I thought it should be canceled and rescheduled for the original date. So I begged the doc to just leave and go somewhere unreachable. He obliged, thank goodness. But then the D.C. Attorney called and said he had been rerouted to Atlanta, and he would not, in fact, be able to make it. Praise God! So the depo was officially rescheduled to the original date.
Fast forward to today, December 8.
Houston Attorney showed up at least an hour and a half early. He wanted to make sure he was here, I guess. When the D.C. attorney arrived about an hour later, I retreated to my office. I could hear most of what was being said out in the lobby. There were some heated exchanges going on, to be sure, and while it didn’t come down to physical blows, it was easy to see that the tone was not one of friendliness. I stayed out of sight as much as possible.
As the time of the scheduled depo drew nearer, I had this feeling the doc, who was making hospital rounds, was going to be late. And sure enough, he showed up about fifteen minutes late. And to top it all off, it had been raining, and the doc had had no raincoat. So he improvised, of course. He showed up in a big black garbage bag.
I had set up everything back in his office, and the attorneys, as well as the stenographer, were waiting to begin. I met him at the door to apprise him of the goings on, and I was a little alarmed when he took off for the office in his newly-acquired rain garb. I don’t know what rule it violates, but I’m certain it is not fashionable to show up at a deposition in a black garbage bag. “You might want to take your bag off,” I whispered. He ignored me and proudly marched off to show the two very uninterested attorneys his clever new wardrobe. I decided to just give it up.
I stayed as far away from the office as possible, although at one point, Dee and I peered through the crack in the door down the hall so that we could watch the stenographer. The stenographer was fascinating. She could type as fast as the conversation, about 165 words per minute. She, of course, has a special machine–not a regular keyboard. When I left at 5:00, they were still going strong. And from the sounds of it, the debate was heated and very intense.
I do not like depositions!!
posted by Kris at 12/08/2005 11:03:00 PM
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