In a huge win for our clients, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida declared parts of a Medicaid reimbursement statute preempted and unconstitutional, and enjoined the State of Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) from using it to enforce its liens in personal injury cases.
On behalf of the clients and their incapacitated daughter, Meredith Ross and Bryan Gowdy of Creed & Gowdy, together with co-counsel Floyd Faglie, filed for summary judgment to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief against AHCA. The summary judgment motion sought to invalidate, on preemption grounds, a state statute that AHCA invokes to collect reimbursement of past Medicaid payments from portions of the recipient's personal injury award/settlement representing future medical expenses. The district court agreed with our position and concluded the Florida statute is preempted by federal law to the extent it permits AHCA to seek reimbursement from payments for future medical expenses, and to the extent it requires Medicaid recipients to rebut an arbitrary statutory formula with clear and convincing evidence.
Read the order here.
Rebecca Bowen Creed and Jessie Harrell recently collaberated on a step-by-step guide for covering the basics of trial preservation and creating a proper appellate record in the April of edition of Attorney at Law Magazine. Read the article here.
Creed & Gowdy successfully defended an appeal filed by the City of Jacksonville against a firefighter who filed a petition for workers' compensation benefits and requested authorization to treat with a cardiologist for his heart and hypertension1 issues, compensability, and attorney's fees. Because he was a firefighter suffering from heart disease, a statutory presumption that his work caused the heart disease was available to him under section 112.18, Florida Statutes, which establishes that certain health conditions resulting in a firefighter's disability or death, including heart disease, "shall be presumed to have been accidental and to have been suffered in the line of duty unless the contrary be shown by competent evidence." § 112.18(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (2014). The City stipulated that there was no evidence of heart disease on the Claimant's pre-employment physical exam. In a written opinion, the First District Court of Appeal sided with the firefighter. Meredith Ross briefed the appeal.
Read the opinion here.
Eva Baker of TeensGotCents and local television station, Buzz TV, recently invited Bryan Gowdy to appear on a Buzz TV segment called "Centsible Leadership." This segment exposes young people to business leaders and community trustees to learn leadership paradigms and the practical steps they can take to develop their leadership skills.
Watch the interview segment here.
Bryan Gowdy, and his client Terrence Graham were recently the focus of a Florida Times Union article about the significant role Mr. Graham's case has played in leading to hundreds of people in Florida and across the United States becoming eligible for resentencings under Graham. The article is part of the Times' ongoing look at juvenile life without parole and the resentencing efforts taking place statewide.