Two Boston area attorneys were temporarily suspended when, according to the Lawrence, Massachusetts court, they "put their self interest ahead of that of the client." Ferreira, Pedro (Lawyers Weekly No. 25-010-10) (April 8, 2010). This was a worker's compensation case involving the Department of Industrial Accidents, and Boston legal malpractice attorney Neil Burns has represented hundreds of clients in cases where an attorney did not put the client's best interest first.
In the Ferreira case, "On August 3, 2004, the employee suffered a back injury at work. The insurer accepted the case and began payment of temporary total incapacity benefits under §34" of the Worker's Compensation Act. "Sometime thereafter, the employee claimed a psychiatric injury as a sequela to the back injury. The insurer was prepared to accept the psychiatric injury until a dispute arose regarding the amount of any attorney's fee which might be due." The two parties were unable to resolve the attorney's fee issue. A hearing was scheduled in the Boston suburb of Lawrence, but the employee's attorney did not attend the hearing.
After dismissing the employee's claim for failure to attend the hearing, the reviewing court found that "[t]he entire record in this case leads me to conclude that . . . the employee's attorneys rejected the insurer's offer to voluntarily accept the claim for psychiatric benefits. Instead, they chose to insist on the payment of fees and costs contemporaneous with the acceptance of the psychiatric claim. [The] Attorneys thereby put their self interest ahead of that of the client. . . ."
The outcome of the case was that the Attorney's were suspended from practicing in front of the Department of Industrial Accidents for a total of 75 days, combined.
