by Curt Schroder | via Philly.com|OCTOBER 13, 2017
“The foundation of justice is good faith.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman lawyer, scholar, and statesman.
Our system of civil justice operates on the good-faith conduct of the parties and their legal representatives in court. What happens when good faith breaks down? Welcome to Pennsylvania’s civil justice system, 2017!
The Inquirer recently reported on a pharmacy, Workers First, owned primarily by three partners and the chief financial officer at the Pond Lehocky law firm. According to the story, the firm refers workers’ compensation clients to a select group of doctors and urges that the prescriptions be filled at Workers First. Some of the doctors also own a piece of the pharmacy, which, the Inquirer reported, “prescribes unproven and exorbitantly priced pain creams to injured workers” — some costing $4,300. Medical experts question the safety and effectiveness of these creams, and legal experts have raised doubts about the ethics of this arrangement. The article said the firm believes it is “on solid ethical footing.
The Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform is very concerned about attorney-pharmacy relationships, and experts agree the situation is ripe for corruption. Read more.