Maryland Association for Justice honors lawyers who fought double billing by HMOs.

Robert K. Jenner of the Baltimore law firm of Janet, Jenner & Suggs, LLC was one of several lawyers named as the 2009 Trial Lawyers of the Year by the Maryland Association for Justice.

The Maryland Association for Justice honored Jenner as a member of a legal team that successfully pursued justice for thousands of customers who had been double-billed by their HMOs.

Also honored were: Paul Bland of Public Justice, the Washington-based national public interest law firm; Kiernon F. Quinn and Marty Wolf, both of Quinn, Gordon & Wolf in Baltimore; and Bruce Plaxen of Plaxen and Adler in Columbia, MD.

The winners were recognized at the organization’s annual President’s Party on May 8 in Baltimore. Each member of the team received a plaque commemorating the achievement.

Jenner and the other attorneys challenged HMOs in Maryland over their use of subrogation. Under the practice of subrogation, when a customer recovered damages from a party that injured them, the HMOs demanded a portion of the money from the recoveries.

Jenner and the other attorneys challenged this practice, saying it violated Maryland’s HMO Act and amounted to a double recovery. They successfully argued that the HMOs’ premiums already accounted for these sums and that Maryland’s HMO statute did not permit HMOs to obtain subrogation against their insureds.

The attorneys pressed cases against five major HMOs and won, recovering approximately $8 million for thousands of Maryland citizens.

After Maryland’s highest court ruled the HMOs had engaged in double billing, lobbyists for the medical providers persuaded the Maryland Legislature to pass a law that allowed HMOs to pursue subrogation claims within certain limits. The law included a retroactive provision that would have eliminated all liability for the HMOs for their earlier illegal subrogation.

The legal team sued to overturn the law, alleging the retroactive application was unconstitutional. In 2002, the Maryland Court of Appeals agreed.

"I’m particularly proud of our victory striking down the retroactive legislation,” Jenner said. “It was extremely unfair for the legislature to try to take away vested constitutional rights of Maryland consumers at the urging of the HMO lobby. The Court’s landmark ruling ensures that this kind of abuse will not happen again."

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