As a result of complications at his birth, Nash developed cerebral palsy. A subsequent medical malpractice lawsuit brought in the 1980s resulted in the funding of an annuity which began making monthly payments when Nash turned 18 in 1997. Factoring companies prey on annuity recipients by offering them cash in exchange for the rights to future annuity payments. Through the forging of Nash’s signature as well as false and misleading submissions by the factoring company to the court responsible for approving annuity transfers, Nash ended up being cheated out of most of his monthly annuity payments. The most egregious transfer was the payment of $20,000 in cash to Nash in exchange for the rights to 111 future monthly payments totaling $333,000. When I was hired and began to question the factoring company’s actions, the factoring company filed an arbitration against Nash in Houston seeking to enforce the annuity transfers. I filed counterclaims seeking to have the transactions vacated. Following a hotly contested three day arbitration, the arbitrator ruled that the two most egregious transfers were void, vacated those transfers, restored Nash’s rights to his monthly annuity payments, and awarded attorney fees. A Houston federal court subsequently confirmed the arbitration award.

I was co-counsel in a lawsuit alleging violations of the False Claims Act in connection with the hospital’s submissions to Medicaid for behavioral health services rendered to children and adolescents. This was a qui tam action which means that we were representing ordinary citizens (called Relators) who brought these violations to the attention of the government. After the United States government declined to intervene, co-counsel and I conducted extensive discovery and complex motion practice. We defeated the hospital’s summary judgment motion as the Court agreed a jury should decide our claims based on an implied false certification theory. Less than a month before trial, the hospital agreed to a settlement which involved payments to the state and federal government as well as entering into a corporate integrity agreement regarding its future conduct. As required by law, our clients were paid a share of the recovery.