Rogue of the week 8.20.14

The other day I was at an administrative hearing.  The client was in prison, but was set to be released in a month.  The charges were over three years old. Nevertheless, the judge decided that he would not continue the hearing and it would be held without him.  Then the fun really began.  He allowed the Department of Health to have an expert witness to advise a medical board.  However, when asked, none of the doctors on the board felt that they needed her assistance.  The judge also would not dismiss the case despite there being no Department representative present. Thus, we could not question the Department regarding how it had come up with the punishment it had or any aspect of their investigation.   And so it went.  At one point, the judge determined the Department’s expert was also an expert in billing practices. I took out her fancy resume and could not see any publications or research she had done regarding such.  When I questioned the witness about her lack of qualifications, the judge intervened and said he simply found her to be an expert.  He added that he did not believe that any research on billing existed in the known universe and gave me ten minutes to find some and present it to the court. He was unmoved when I told him that I did not have access to a computer or a printer but could brief the court later.  My favorite decision was when he awarded a fact witness, who happened to be a doctor, expert witness fees despite our assurance that we would only ask fact questions.  Better still, the judge awarded him $600 an hour when he only asked for $400 an hour!  Meet the kangaroo!