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For The Ambitious Advocate BRIEF RECESS
DECEMBER 2022
FROM THE LAW OFFICES OF J. PRICE MCNAMARA
YES, YOUR FIRM WILL SURVIVE IF YOU TAKE TIME OFF 3 PROCEDURES YOU NEED SO TAKING A VACATION IS NEVER A PROBLEM
When it comes to taking time off, I’ll be honest, I used to be the worst. Whenever I’d find myself on vacation in a lovely location surrounded by my family, I was fighting the urge to check in and micromanage the staff I’d left behind at the firm. “Any information that came into my office must be funneled through me” is what I thought. I know many lawyers struggle with vacationing because they think their firm will nosedive without them. I’ll tell you right now, none of that is true. I learned this lesson in 2021, when Hurricane Ida hit the Louisiana coast. I have a fishing camp in Grand Isle, and the island was pounded incredibly hard by the storm. On top of that, my wife and I own a farm about 30 minutes from our house, and the devastation didn’t spare our acreage either.
With over 60 trees down and the fishing camp a mess, I had no choice but to be away from work to begin what would become months of repairs. To my surprise, my office didn’t fall apart in my absence. In fact, it ran flawlessly! If you’re wondering how I was able to be out of the office as a busy lawyer, I’ll let you in on what I learned during my leave. The secret is this: I have the best team on Earth; they care about their jobs and have mastered the processes and routines we have in place. Life will always throw you curveballs, whether it’s a natural disaster or a death in the family, so you can’t escape taking time off forever. I’m here to tell you that taking time away is possible — if you utilize your staff. Here is what we’ve learned at the Law Offices of J. Price McNamara, so taking time off is never a problem.
your day and writing down each step of every single task you do. Actions as small as replacing the water cooler all the way to your legal cases should be clearly outlined. The reason is simple: If your employees have a question about anything in your absence, the answer will be written down for them to find. Even if the cases at your firm are complex, writing down as many steps as possible provides your staff with a basic understanding of how things work. We recommend putting all these into one big binder, drawer, or online database so anyone can access them. This allows your staff to complete even challenging tasks when you’re not there. Set up a chain of command. When you’re gone, designate someone to be your doppelganger. Choose the employee who has the best understanding of everything you do to take your spot, so you know they’ll be able to answer most of the questions that come their way. Before you leave for your vacation, let your staff know who is in charge and that all questions should be directed to them.
Write everything down — and we mean everything!
Spell out every possible case or scenario you have from beginning to end. While this may seem tedious, we promise it’s worth it. The easiest way to do this is by starting at the beginning of
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NOT ALL FAT IS CREATED EQUAL
And Always Wear Eye Protection! FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: DON’T SKIMP ON DISABILITY INSURANCE
Did you know that there are two types of fat: subcutaneous and visceral?
Subcutaneous fat is the “pinchable” fat commonly found around your midsection, arms, and legs. Visceral fat, however, wraps around your organs, so it’s much harder to see or even notice. Compared to subcutaneous fat, visceral fat puts you at a higher risk for health complications. Some potential health concerns that can result from excess visceral fat include Alzheimer’s, high cholesterol, heart disease, and stroke. So, how do you measure your visceral fat, and how do you get rid of it? While it’s difficult to measure, costly imaging tests can accurately report just how much visceral fat is hanging around your internal organs. As a cheaper alternative, you can use your body mass index, or BMI, as an indicator of healthy weight ranges and appropriate fat levels based on your body measurements. You can also measure your waist size since visceral fat tends to congregate in your abdominal cavity. According to Medical News Today, if a woman’s waist measures 35 inches or more, she likely is carrying too much visceral fat. The same is true for a man’s waist that measures 40 inches or more.
As Susan sped me to the emergency room, weaving in and out of traffic and ignoring red lights, she asked, “Are you scared?”
“About being blind in one eye or dying in a crash before we get to the hospital?” I asked.
My wife shook her head. “Let’s just be quiet and pray.”
“I’m praying we get there alive,” I said.
Does your office turn away calls about “long-term disability insurance” claim denials because you don’t handle administrative appeals or “ERISA litigation” in federal court? We want to hear from you! We happily share fees on referred ERISA long-term disability, life insurance, and accidental death insurance denial cases. Send us an email at briefrecess@jpricemcnamara.com or call 225-201-8311 to start the referral process! WE VALUE YOUR REFERRALS! Earlier that day was a typical Sunday afternoon at “the farm,” a mostly wooded acreage north of Baton Rouge, where we spent most weekends maintaining the property. Susan was tending to horses while I was back in the woods clearing overgrown trails. In my path were pesky vines roughly an inch thick hanging down from tree branches about 30 feet up. Like dozens of times before, I hooked a thick vine behind the tractor’s front-end loader and pulled it slowly in
The best course of action is to reduce and prevent visceral fat, which can be challenging, as the only true way to eliminate visceral fat and keep it off
is through proper diet and exercise. Here are some methods to reduce your risk of harmful effects of excess visceral fat: • Prioritize sleep and ensure that you are getting enough. • Exercise for at least 30 minutes daily (aerobic exercises are especially beneficial). • Consume a healthy and
balanced diet consisting of proteins, fruits, and veggies.
• Avoid smoking. • Reduce sugary sodas and drinks. • Limit alcohol intake. • Avoid trans fats. • Reduce stress levels.
No matter how fit or in shape you are, having some fat on your body is normal and healthy. However, to keep your body healthy and performing its best, reducing visceral fat is essential!
ERISA is all we do!
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reverse. When stretched under high tension, the vines usually strip loose from the branches and fall to the ground. Then, you can just cut them and push them out of the trail. But this time, while I inched backward and watched the vine pull tighter and tighter on the bucket (in hindsight, not smart at all), it popped instead of stripping out of the branches. In a blur, it whipped into my opened left eye so hard I thought it was now jelly. To tell you the truth, I was scared. As lawyers, we read a lot on most days of the week. Was that even feasible now with one working eye? Google told me that one-eyed people can move the book instead of the good eye to conserve eye-muscle energy. That didn’t sound promising for all-day reading.
How We Win Against Phony Doctors Hired to Support Insurers THIS WOULD NEVER FLY WITH A JURY
Would I need to call my disability insurer?
I’d never considered these things before. It gave me a glimpse of the fear my long-term disability insurance clients face when an illness or injury ruins their ability to work and a claim denial wrecks them financially.
We’re seeing this more and more: long-term disability insurers will approve benefits for incurable conditions, then, without rational explanation, terminate benefits, effectively declaring their insured suddenly cured. Our recent client, “Bob,” is a perfect example. Bob, married and a proud father, was a software engineer living in Atlanta. He was in his mid-40s, loved his work, and earned well over $100,000 annually when he was diagnosed at Mayo Clinic with a rare sleep disorder called idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) that caused excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Patients with IH can’t fight the unpredictable need to sleep several times a day, and suffer constant brain fog and fatigue. It’s like narcolepsy, except patients don’t feel rested regardless of how long they sleep. Symptoms can mimic drunkenness and having the flu. Reliance Insurance Company, based on its own doctors’ opinions, approved Bob for employment-based ERISA long-term disability benefits in early 2016 after he began regularly missing work and was unable to keep up with deliverables. But five years later, and despite IH having no known cure, Reliance randomly had a doctor “take another look” at his medical records to declare him capable of any work without limitation. Bob’s benefits were terminated based on only a records review, despite Reliance’s right to an actual IME. This would never fly with a jury, right? As ridiculous as it may seem for Reliance to hire a new doctor (of unimpressive credentials) to disagree with its first doctor and Bob’s credentialed treating physicians, long-term disability insurers do it all the time when the claim is governed by federal ERISA law. Why? Because under ERISA, Bob can’t get a jury trial, and no bad-faith penalties are available under state law. So, insurers terminate benefits and hope Bob files his mandatory ERISA administrative appeal without counsel, and like most claimants, without properly building evidence into the administrative record. They know that if Bob takes that route, he’ll probably lose his federal court trial because the judge can’t consider any new evidence that wasn’t made part of that record. Our firm added a ton of supportive evidence into the record on appeal, Reliance approved Bob’s benefits, and thankfully, we didn’t have to go to court. Though it was a just outcome, Reliance should never have put Bob and his family through financial and emotional turmoil.
I am legally blind in my left eye now, and I wear shatterproof glasses all day to protect the right. Thankfully, reading and all other activities are unhindered using my good eye, and I never had to make a disability insurance claim. But believe me, it’s comforting to know you have that coverage, just in case. And now, I never do anything eye-risky without proper protection!
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Unplug. Try to stay off your phone when you’re finally away on vacation. You’ve set up guidelines and a chain of command, so trust the exceptional employees you’ve left behind. Now, I would be lying if I said I don’t check my phone now and again when I’m off. However, to combat working your
vacation away, I recommend picking designated times of the day that you allow yourself to check in with the firm. Let your staff know when you’ll be available and only work during these established time frames. Since Hurricane Ida, I’ve taken multiple relaxing vacations. My family went on a wonderful ski trip in Jackson Hole, and my wife and I even impulsively traveled to Denver to sightsee. Before establishing these procedures, I wouldn’t have been able
to go anywhere impulsively. So learn from me, don’t wait for a disaster to go on vacation. Be proactive, plan, and take some time off just because; you deserve it!
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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
ERISA INSURANCE J. PRICE MCNAMARA Claim Attorney
10455 Jefferson Hwy. Suite 130 Baton Rouge, LA 70809 (225) 201-8311 WinMyBenefits.com
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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The 3 Routines That Allow My Team To Run Flawlessly Without Me
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Eliminating Visceral Fat
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How I Became Legally Blind in My Left Eye
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Case Summary: The Unjust Cancellation of Benefits for an Incurable Condition
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A Cat Helped Write a Physics Paper?
A Cat Coauthored an Influential Physics Paper THE TRUE STORY OF F.D.C. WILLARD
Cats defy the laws of physics all the time, so it’s only fitting a cat would teach us physics more directly — by coauthoring a highly cited, influential physics paper. In 1975, Jack H. Hetherington was a professor of physics at Michigan State University, and he completed a paper on atomic behavior. However, he had a problem: As a sole author, Hetherington had used “we” throughout the paper. A colleague pointed out that publishers reserved that language for papers with multiple authors. With today’s software, this would be a minor inconvenience. But to fix his error in 1975, Hetherington would have to retype the entire paper manually on his typewriter. Time was short, and Hetherington had done all the work himself.
Of course, the name Chester wouldn’t look convincing as a scientific paper coauthor. So, he invented “F.D.C. Willard.” The initials stand for Felis Domesticus Chester. The last name, Willard, was the name of Chester’s father. The professor didn’t feel too guilty for trying to deceive the publisher: “Why would I do such an irreverent thing? … If it eventually proved to be correct, people would remember the paper more if the anomalous authorship were known. In any case, I went ahead and did it and have generally not been sorry.” The journal loved the paper, but the ruse stayed secret among his close colleagues until a visitor arrived to meet the authors. When Hetherington told them the truth, they laughed, and not long after that, the feline coauthor became quite famous. F.D.C. Willard not only saved Hetherington from rewriting the entire paper, but also continues to inspire cat-related academia antics. On April 1, 2014, the American Physical Society (APS) announced all cat-authored papers would be made freely available. “Not since Schrödinger has there been an opportunity like this for cats in physics,” they wrote. We couldn’t agree more.
According to Hetherington’s 1982 book, “More Random Walks in Science,” he explained, “After an evening’s thought, I simply asked the secretary to change the title page to include the name of the family cat.” And that’s what happened; the professor named his Siamese cat, Chester, as his coauthor.
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