Re: Costs/Shared expert testimony/Schaller, MD

[Guest guest]

i feel lost in the system it IS broken.

I am winning , and im losing...

today i composed this to local officials...

Ms. Gunther, Ms. Clinton, Mr. Bonacic, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Schumer, Mr.

Pataki, Mr. Spitzer:

I am hoping you can help. I am weary and severely financially stressed.

I am writing to you as a once highly active and productive community

member. Since moving to Sullivan County in 1983 I have worked as school

librarian for the Liberty School District. I was the county summer

school librarian and worked the night reference desk at the local

college. I used to sing at community functions, appear in Forestburgh

playhouses’ summer productions, book and announce acts at Kutshers,

represent our local WJFF public radio station at independent music

events in the US and Canada, and most importantly to me was a very

active mother of three with a home that was a thriving hub for

high-school kids.

Constant leaking in the roof of the Liberty Middle School has left me

recovering from mycotoxic poisoning resulting in hypersenstivities and

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. My condition prevents me from being in

public without accommodations of removing chemical exposures in the form

of chemical cleaners, fragrances, volatile organic compounds and

substances with petroleum bases. Since I left my position in the summer

of 2004, the CDC, NIOSH and many roofing contractors have addressed the

ongoing water incursions in the roof above the work area I inhabited for

over 13 years.

Court takes a long time to make rulings. Lawyers prolong dates due to

other commitments or vacations. My situation ran past my available sick

days. Even though I won my court case, appeals block my salary. I have

drawn no pay since March of 2006. The Liberty School district put me on

unpaid sick leave. Then, contrary to the sworn promise by the

superintendent, the school cut my health care benefits. I now pay

$1,172.17 every month for COBRA benefits for my three children and

myself. On no salary this has depleted my savings greatly. School taxes

are now due. You are looking at the story of a very proactive

intelligent educator and community member wondering if she will now lose

her house.

Continued communication with my employer regarding accommodations have

not been fruitful. I am educated, hard worker with an unchanged skill

base. Why can’t my disability be addressed? I want to return to work as

a productive and helpful citizen, without exposing myself to chemicals

which my system can no longer process. Is there any help you can give me?

Page

cc. Times Herald Record, Superintendent Rhine, Liberty School Board

members, Sullivan County Democrat, Towne Crier

[Guest guest]

In my darker moments I've come to the conclusion that the system is

DESIGNED to do this and only provide the ILLUSION of justice to serve

as a trap for people who are foolish enough to put trust in it.

That said, people have to stand up for their rights.. even if it means

bringing their lawsuits themselves and demanding that the judges show

them how to proceed.. (People should have a right to do that..)

Here's another idea.. What about an organization for mold escapees who

are fighting their legal battles that would offer assistance and

access to shared 'expert' testimony IF and only if the plaintiffs

would agree to not prticipate in the kind of "

Vacatur " legal settlements described below..

They seem to be a big part of the problem...

.....

Vacatur

http://www.badfaithinsurance.org/vacatur.html

" Vacatur is an order by a court whereby a decision that has been

rendered in a proceeding or judgment is set aside, annulled or

vacated. Vacatur is a procedure by which a court either invalidates

its own decision or the decision of a lower court. (FBIC comments as

cited herein do not apply to when a higher court invalidates a lower

court's wrongful decision). It is understandable as to why a higher

court would invalidate a lower court's decision made in error but why

would a court invalidate its own decision? This type of vacatur when a

higher court invalidates its own decision occurs mainly when a losing

party, e.g. an Insurance Company, agrees to pay the winning party, but

only if the winning party joins with the losing party in requesting

the judge to vacate the court's decision. Unfortunately once a

decision is vacated in this manner, in most cases it winds up

disappearing from all legal records, the very same records which

judges and lawyers use to find precedents for common law and for the

settling of future cases.

Generally, plaintiff insurance claimants overwhelmingly win their

cases more and more today to include compensatory damages but only a

few with substantial punitive damages awards, adequate enough to act

as a potential future deterrent to hopefully stop or influence bad

faith insurers from continuing their illegal practices. (For more on

those states which " state laws " permit punitive damage awards, click

here). Unfortunately, the punitive damages awards are usually

appealed for as long as possible by bad faith insurers in order to put

off having to pay. In addition, generally, the payment of many

medium-size and larger verdict awards, that are exclusive of punitive

damages, are also delayed as long as the courts and court actions

allow the insurers and their defense lawyers to use the system to get

away for as long as possible without paying the adjudicated claim and

judgment amount.

Generally, the defense upon losing a court case and decision and

depending upon the size of the award and the insurer's willingness to

pay, the insurance company agrees to pay the amount of the verdict

award and not to appeal or further appeal the decision only if the

plaintiff agrees to have the court's decision " vacated " and the

information surrounding the case be kept confidential as part of the

terms and conditions of settling the case. Accordingly, through the

" vacatur " process, the insurance industry removes from all records and

publication the bad faith insurance court information from ever being

viewed. In so doing, experts estimate that 50-80% of all cases and

case laws decided in favor of plaintiffs, policyholders and claimants

are sealed, kept secret and/or erased (aka " vacatur " ) from court

records. Because of the agreed upon confidentiality and substantial

number of cases sealed from view and/or erased from record, the number

of published bad faith case verdicts available to plaintiff lawyers

and the public have been minimized and articles on the subject kept

limited. Further adding to this information imbalance, the

McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 exempted the insurance industry from

federal laws leaving insurance companies free to collect and share

information and documents amongst themselves that are not available to

policyholders, claimants, plaintiff insurance attorneys or anyone

else.

Insurance companies will often pay the winning litigants more than

they won in court, but only if the winner will agree to vacatur, the

judgment being vacated and the case disappearing from record. Many

court decisions that go against insurance companies disappear from

record in this manner. In other cases the insurance company will pay a

losing party not to appeal and let stand a judgment favorable to the

insurance company. A decision in any insurance coverage case may have

nationwide impact because of common insurance policy language. As

such, one decision can affect insurance claims for hundreds of

millions of dollars in dozens of other cases where policyholders are

trying to collect from their insurance companies. Therefore, the

insurance industry has a huge vested interest in seeing that any

precedent setting judgment that supports a policyholder over an

insurance company is erased.

Courts justify vacatur on the ground that it promotes immediate

settlement of disputes and thus helps to clear the court's docket.

However, when a judgment is vacated, it most often disappears from all

records with nobody knowing about it except those involved who are

often sworn to secrecy as part of the settlement. In so doing, the law

remaining on the books is skewed as it does not reflect all of the

decisions on an issue. This allows parties in later actions to having

to concede to argue the law and have the courts reach conclusions

without the knowledge and benefit of having these vacated precedent

setting case judgments to cite as reference and support their

positions. The losers in the case of vacated insurance decisions are

the insurance buying public who may find that the previous reported

cases on the books wrongfully favor the insurance companies.

Insurance companies, whose lawyers are always in court, are the

beneficiaries of vacated judgments. They have an enormous financial

exposure and tremendous amount to lose if judicial decisions harmful

to their industry and company interests are allowed to stay on the

books. Outrageous, in essence, they engage in the practice of buying

decisions that go against them by immediately paying the winners the

amount awarded or more, provided the court vacates its decision. The

policyholder and winning party often is willing to settle even after

obtaining a favorable decision, because appeals by the losing side can

delay or prevent payment of judgment until all appeals are concluded

which can take a number of years. Therefore, to secure the benefit of

its victory, the policyholder will often agree to vacate the decision

in order to get its money sooner rather than later. If the

policyholder does not agree, many times insurance companies will offer

the policyholder immediate payment of even more money than the court

awarded in its decision if the winning party will agree to vacatur.

Courts frequently consent to that request since both parties are

making the request.

The practice of vacatur in effect changes, misrepresents and rewrites

history, the law and outcomes of future cases. The losers when vacatur

occurs are all the other parties with similar actions who would have

been able to negotiate an immediate satisfactory settlement or win

their cases outright without litigation had the original decision(s)

not been vacated. Other losers are all of the taxpayers and those who

use the courts to resolve a dispute. Vacatur affects every court

system and area of the law in America.

It is estimated by knowledgeable attorneys however that as much as

fifty percent of judicial decisions favoring policyholders are wiped

off the law books by the insurance industry by such vacatur actions.

FBIC believes that the practice of vacatur should stop. "

[Guest guest]

,

Please forgive me, I wasn't directing my comment to you.

Actually, something very similar happened to me.

What I was saying is that it's very naiive to put trust in a system

instead of doing our best to change it fundamentally, because the

system is SO stacked against us its fundamentally illegitimate..

There are so many Catch 22s in this system that obviously, its broken.

For example, there is something profoundly evil about a system that

pretends to help poor people that only rich people can afford to avail

themselves of - The poor people's lives are broken by this.. The rich

people might be able to afford to sue but they don't need it..

(also, they get more money so lawyers are much more interested in

helping them..)

[Guest guest]

,

Are you taking *cholestyramine*?

[Guest guest]

,

You need to start looking for another job. One that treats you better.

Get out of there, before it ruins your health even more than it has

already..it will...

[Guest guest]

LiveSimply wrote:

> ,

> You need to start looking for another job. One that treats you better.

> Get out of there, before it ruins your health even more than it has

> already..it will...

>

i left june 04 and havnt been back. began csm right away and felt the

pains slide away (rib, kneww soreness..etc) Coughing stopped etc- I knew

to get out, i was fainting for heavens sake. The school has tried

fixing the problem and it seems to simply keep leaking. I am able to do

so much, yet tehy refuse to accommodate me. Who can chime in when an

employer makes someone ill and then denies them their job due to the

very condition they caused. Crazy unfair world. I am being accommodated

in many areas of my life. TRouble is, they hae a younger and cheaper

replacement - hm, what could their motive be. My skill set hasnt

changed. You give 23 years to a community and their kids and then they

turn their back on you. Funny how getting ill makes you an emeny.

[Guest guest]

-Mr. Schaller, thank you for being here and careing, we need more

like

you.

-- In , " J. Page "

<apage1@...> wrote:

>

> i feel lost in the system it IS broken.

> I am winning , and im losing...

>

> today i composed this to local officials...

>

> Ms. Gunther, Ms. Clinton, Mr. Bonacic, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Schumer,

Mr.

> Pataki, Mr. Spitzer:

>

> I am hoping you can help. I am weary and severely financially

stressed.

>

> I am writing to you as a once highly active and productive

community

> member. Since moving to Sullivan County in 1983 I have worked as

school

> librarian for the Liberty School District. I was the county summer

> school librarian and worked the night reference desk at the local

> college. I used to sing at community functions, appear in

Forestburgh

> playhouses' summer productions, book and announce acts at Kutshers,

> represent our local WJFF public radio station at independent music

> events in the US and Canada, and most importantly to me was a very

> active mother of three with a home that was a thriving hub for

> high-school kids.

>

> Constant leaking in the roof of the Liberty Middle School has left

me

> recovering from mycotoxic poisoning resulting in hypersenstivities

and

> Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. My condition prevents me from

being in

> public without accommodations of removing chemical exposures in the

form

> of chemical cleaners, fragrances, volatile organic compounds and

> substances with petroleum bases. Since I left my position in the

summer

> of 2004, the CDC, NIOSH and many roofing contractors have addressed

the

> ongoing water incursions in the roof above the work area I

inhabited for

> over 13 years.

>

> Court takes a long time to make rulings. Lawyers prolong dates due

to

> other commitments or vacations. My situation ran past my available

sick

> days. Even though I won my court case, appeals block my salary. I

have

> drawn no pay since March of 2006. The Liberty School district put

me on

> unpaid sick leave. Then, contrary to the sworn promise by the

> superintendent, the school cut my health care benefits. I now pay

> $1,172.17 every month for COBRA benefits for my three children and

> myself. On no salary this has depleted my savings greatly. School

taxes

> are now due. You are looking at the story of a very proactive

> intelligent educator and community member wondering if she will now

lose

> her house.

>

> Continued communication with my employer regarding accommodations

have

> not been fruitful. I am educated, hard worker with an unchanged

skill

> base. Why can't my disability be addressed? I want to return to

work as

> a productive and helpful citizen, without exposing myself to

chemicals

> which my system can no longer process. Is there any help you can

give me?

>

> Page

>

> cc. Times Herald Record, Superintendent Rhine, Liberty School Board

> members, Sullivan County Democrat, Towne Crier

>

[Guest guest]

,

I understand how you feel but you have to try to see this from their

perspective..

is there some way you can stay employed in the same school system and

keep your pension, etc.. and remain healthy..

Perhaps you can buy your own HEPA cleaners and bring them to work.. or

figure out some kind of service you can do that will not require you

to work in the toxic area..

By the way, did you test mold samples from your workplace for

mycotoxins? It might strengthen your case to show just how toxic it

really is.. if it is..

Its not so difficult for a school to pooh pooh mold test results that

show toxinogenic molds are present.. (because they will always claim

that the mold sample you are using as an example, 'might not be toxic'

- basically they are claiming that even if they have lots of different

moldy areas, that they are innocent until proven guilty.. I don;t

think that algorithm is appropriate.. its more like russian roulette

with half the bullets in the barrel of the gun.. and a different gun

pointed at our heads for each moldy area..)

However, if your samples show up as toxic (trichothecenes, aflatoxins,

ochratoxins, etc.) then you have proof that its capable of killing

people or giving their precious kids cancer..

That might change things..

What do the parents of the kids who go there say about this? Are kids

getting sick..

How do kids learn in moldy schools? Some schools are so moldy that I'm

surprised (as Dr. Shoemakers says) that they can remember their own

names..