Court Opinion

ID: 9505394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:04:16.42858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:25.549017
License: Public Domain

BOEHM, J,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
As I understand the majority opinion, it holds that Dr. Nash’s charges are not recoverable by Dr. Nash from anyone. To reach that result, the majority reasons 1) the Board may approve physicians’ charges for evaluative services as well as the charges by treating physicians; 2) the Board disapproved Nash’s charges; 3) as a result, nobody owes Nash for his services; 4) the law firm’s agreement with the worker that the worker will reimburse out of *997pocket charges has no bearing on this issue because, in light of conclusion # 3, there is no charge to reimburse. I think this analysis focuses on the wrong agreement and resolves an issue that is not before the court involving a party who is not before the court. The missing link in this chain of reasoning, and the one that in my view is controlling, is the arrangement between the lawyer and the doctor.
As I see it, the majority properly begins the resolution of this case by holding that fees of both treating and testifying physicians are subject to Board approval. I agree. But the issue is the consequences of Board disapproval of an expert’s fee. We have long held that an attorney’s agreement with a worker providing for a fee in excess of the fee permitted under the Board’s schedule is unenforceable without Board approval. Buckler v. Hilt, 209 Ind. 541, 200 N.E. 219 (1936). Collection of such a fee is a violation of the prohibition in Rule Professional Responsibility 1.5(a) against collection of unreasonable fees. In re Maley, 674 N.E.2d 544, 546 (1996). That means the lawyer cannot collect a larger fee from the client, even if the client has agreed to it. As the majority points out, the statute makes “fees” of attorneys and physicians subjéct to Board approval, but does not explicitly refer to litigation expenses. I agree that a “fee” of a testifying physician is subject to this provision, just as much as the fee of a treating physician. Where I part company with the majority is in determining the consequences of Board disapproval of a testifying physician’s fee. I agree with the majority that Board disapproval renders an expert’s fee uncollectible from the client, whatever the client’s fee agreement provides. This statutory scheme is designed to prevent exploitation of the worker by the professionals, and to maximize the amounts that are dedicated to compensating the victims of industrial accidents. Capping the amounts that can be charged to the worker is fully consistent with that goal. The lawyer is charged with knowledge of this arrangement and therefore cannot charge more than the fee arrangement provided by the Administrative Code, 631 IAC 1-1-24, unless the Board approves it.
It seems to me that the statute should be read to address the recovery of the expenses of litigation, whether testifying physicians or otherwise, when it provides that lawyers’ “fees” are subject to approval. Just as a testifying physician’s fee may be unreasonable, so also may other expenses be unreasonable in light of the nature of the ease and the amounts involved. A physician’s fee may be unreasonable because it is excessive for the services rendered. It also may be unreasonable not because the amount is unreasonably large for the service performed, but because performing the service was unreasonable under the circumstances of the case. Just as there may be too many depositions in garden spots around the world, there may be too much expert testimony for a particular case. If so the expense may be unreasonable even though the charges are in the amounts customarily paid for the goods or services. To be sure, any contention that an expense was unreasonable should be evaluated with a strong presumption that the expense was proper, and unreasonable expenses are hopefully rare. But if a lawyer incurs unreasonable expenses in pursuit of a claim it has the same effect on the worker as collection of an excessive fee for the lawyer’s services. If the Board finds an unreasonable expense, it should be subject to disallowance and the worker should be relieved of that burden. Although it is not dispositive, it is interesting to note that WR & A apparently shares this view. The action that precip*998itated this issue was his petition for approval of fees and expenses, including Dr. Nash’s fee, which was apparently treated as a litigation expense.
All of this, however, does not resolve the rights of persons other than the worker whose obligation to pay is terminated by the Board’s finding that the expense is unreasonable. Whether the supplier of the unreasonable service can still collect from somebody is another issue. If the lawyer is the supplier, the answer is easy: an excessive fee is not collectible from the client, and I think it should be clear that the lawyer cannot circumvent that statutory provision by obtaining an undertaking from someone else—say, the worker’s family—to pay a fee that the client could not be obliged to pay. The reason it is not unfair to put that burden on the lawyer is the lawyer is responsible for understanding the law and knowing that the Board’s approval may be an obstacle to enforcement of a fee agreement.
The same reasoning does not apply to other suppliers of services. If for example, the Board determined that the lawyer’s selection of Cancún as a deposition site was unreasonable and the expense should not be borne by the worker, neither the hotel in Mexico nor the reporter who transcribed the deposition should bear that economic burden. I would conclude, therefore, that at least some suppliers of unreasonable litigation services may collect from the lawyer for services rendered. Indeed, in almost all those cases the lawyer, not the client, will be the person who made the decision to employ the vendor, and who contracted for the services. The supplier may not be aware of any limitations on the ability of the lawyer to recover from the client, or even that the lawyer is working on an Indiana Workers’ Compensation matter.
A physician is in a somewhat different position from other suppliers of litigation services. The statute expressly purports to regulate physician’s fees, and, whether treating or testifying, the doctor knows that a workers compensation matter is in issue. This brings me to what I think is the unresolved and unresolvable issue in this case. We have no basis to conclude what, if any, contract or course of dealing has governed the relationship between Dr. Nash and the lawyer. It is easy to imagine at least four scenarios: 1) the doctor agreed to take whatever the Board approves and no more; 2) the lawyer agreed to compensate the doctor at a given rate, whatever the Board approves; 3) there is no relevant agreement or course of dealing between the two or 4) the two operated on the assumption, mistakenly, that the worker would bear the doctor’s fee.
WR & A here argues that the Board cannot disapprove Dr. Nash’s fee, because to do so would require the lawyer to pay it in violation of Rule of Professional Conduct 1.8(e). I think this contention focuses the real issue, but proceeds from a number of flawed assumptions. For WR & A’s argument to hold water, it must be true that Dr. Nash is entitled to recover from the lawyer a matter of contract law and also that the lawyer’s paying Dr. Nash would violate RPC 1.8(e). I think the first is unknowable on this record, though either a formal agreement or some doctrines of contract law arising from the conduct of the parties could product that result. Whether or not WR & A is liable to Nash in this case, the assumption that paying Nash would violate WR & A’s professional obligations is in my view incorrect. RPC 1.8(e)(1) expressly authorizes a lawyer to absorb litigation expenses whose repayment by the client is “contingent upon the outcome of the matter.” For the reasons already given, I agree that the workers’ compensation statute precludes collection *999of Dr. Nash’s fee from the worker. This prevents collection from the worker either directly, by payment by the worker to Dr. Nash, or indirectly by reimbursing the lawyer for an unreasonable litigation expense. If the expense is not disapproved, its payment by the worker may be authorized as an expense of litigation. But if it is disapproved, it may not be charged to the worker. As a matter of law, therefore, any reimbursement of a fee from the Ghent’s pocket is “contingent upon the outcome of the matter,” namely the outcome that the Board not disapprove it. The Rules of Professional Conduct therefore present no obstacle to the lawyer’s paying the doctor’s fee without reimbursement from the client. The Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers uses the same language. A lawyer may make a loan covering litigation expenses, “the payment of which to the lawyer may be contingent on the outcome of the matter.” Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers § 36 (2000). The comments make clear that this includes lawyer’s payment of witness fee with only contingent reimbursement. Id. cmt. c.
Whether this legal regime leaves Dr. Nash with any recourse against the lawyer is unknowable on this record, but I would not hold, as I understand the majority does, that the law precludes collection of a disapproved expert fee from the lawyer under any circumstances. There may be cases where a doctor, particularly one with specialized skills and in great demand, may refuse to participate in a contingent fee arrangement and demand compensation at an agreed rate whether the Board approves or not. I can see no reason in policy why the lawyer should not be able to make the judgment whether the lawyer is willing to underwrite that potential expense. This is the same sort of risk/reward analysis lawyers engage in when evaluating any contingent fee arrangement. To be sure worker’s compensation practice may be less lucrative than some other forms of contingent fee work, but it is the lawyer, not the law, who should be able to make the decision in a given case whether it is sensible to take that risk. The driving policy in these statutory provisions governing legal fees and expenses is protection of the worker. I think it is in the worker’s interest that the lawyer be able' to make an agreement with an expert whereby the lawyer assumes the risk of guaranteeing the expert’s fees. Whether it is good judgment in any given case to enter into that arrangement should be left to the lawyer.
In sum, I agree with the majority that the Board may approve or disapprove the fees of a testifying physician. But I think the consequence of disapproval is only that the worker does not bear that cost, and the majority incorrectly purports to resolve payment as between the lawyer and the doctor. In my view the Board has no power to adjudicate the issue of whether the lawyer or the doctor bears that cost because the doctor is not a party to the proceeding and, unlike the lawyer, is not bound by the statutory restrictions on collecting from some collateral guarantor if the worker is not obligated for the fee. The Board itself seems to share that view. Its order stated that Dr. Nash’s fees are not to be “paid by the plaintiff.” It did not purport to have the effect the majority gives it, and I do not believe the Board has jurisdiction to make such a determination.