Maryland Courts: its time for an overhaul

Maryland Courts: it is time for an overhaul

Justice in Maryland is very expensive. Thirty three thousand lawyers maneuver through Maryland’s legal system daily, earning billions in the process. Added to these costs are the maintenance and support of a multitude of judicial settings with a price tag nearing a billion dollars. Perhaps the time has come for judicial reform in the state of Maryland. To purify a judicial system replete with judges whose ideologies are less then centric in their origins, citizen arbiters or referees could be instituted at minimal costs to the state. This group of people would have training in basic legal concepts and applicable law to which they are assigned to arbitrate. To enable these citizen referees to function, all laws and mandates emanating from Annapolis will be required to be written in simple English, a concept whose time has come. Complex legal structure already in place will be reconstituted to conform to the simple English approach. As legal case structure becomes more complex an appellate division will be available with appropriately trained people to perform its functions. Since the greatest majority of cases will be managed in these lower citizen courts the Appellate division will be pared down appropriately. Lawyers who want to practice in Maryland will be required to follow a fee schedule similar to that inflicted on physicians. Marylanders may not be aware that legal functions in many other countries are performed by administrative type personnel not lawyers. Contracts, wills, divorces, estate planning and more are managed by government functionaries for pennies when compared to their American counterparts. Utilizing the services of a lawyer in other countries is reserved for extremely complex civil cases and criminal violations of the law. Japan has approximately 30,000 lawyers for a population of 128,000,000. America has 1.1 million lawyers who hoover over a populous of 312 million. Maryland has instituted processes entangling its citizenry in legal complexity beyond which is necessary to manage a civilized society. Judges have forgotten who they serve. Antiquated rules and procedures from administrative domains through the Appellate divisions have been established to deny due process to those who come before them. This regulatory system needs to be revamped, simplifying a system that is begging for an overhaul. Unless a commission is established to revitalize the judicial system in Maryland justice will continue to be expensive and remain very blind. Mark Davis MD, author of the very popular book Demons of the Democracy. platomd@gmail.com

Maryland Justice: Soviet Style

Maryland Justice: Soviet Style

Maryland has institutionalized soviet style justice. The ability of a person with or without an attorney to provide oral arguments before a court has been curtailed by an extremist judiciary. People are no longer seen as individuals bringing their grievances to an arbiter for resolution. Many Maryland judges recognize them as nuisances to be expeditiously shown the door. Maryland Court of Special Appeals has followed a path that autocratic societies generally accept as the norm, but not in those domains where democracy is the foundation. In a case that could have extended ramifications for physicians here in Maryland and beyond our state borders this author brought a legal action against a medical record peer reviewer, who was engaged by the Maryland Board of Physicians. As a plaintiff before the Howard Circuit representing himself, Judge Louis Becker was confrontational with this pro se as he exchanged pleasantries with the defendant’s attorney, in an effort to quickly dismiss this action without hearing its merits. The essence of the case was a physician who was not a specialist in the core material he was hired to “peer” review was allowed to perform in a Maryland court as an expert witness. In his own words the witness admitted to his lacked expertise, yet he was the sole reason the Maryland Board of Physicians revoked a medical license. Physicians in Maryland will now confront hired guns as quasi medical experts to steal their livelihoods. Judge Becker, in a manner befitting a party member, lambasted this author as he pointed to the door leading out of the courtroom. Hoping for an ounce of recourse from a Maryland Judiciary that sold its sole to the highest bidder long ago the case was appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. As in the lower court pro se justice is no justice in these higher domains. Someone in the Court of Appeals determined that they will deny this author the right to present oral arguments before the three judge panel, who will presumably white washed this case in favor of the medical board (Mark Davis v. Ira Kaplan case number 02836 September Term 2010). Oral arguments, as is noted by numerous  Supreme Court justices, is essential to understanding a case brought before a higher judicial body. These arguments allow facts to be solidified and nuances of the case to be drawn out. Maryland Appellate Courts roll out the red carpets for those with highly paid attorneys and cases that make the 5pm news. The rest of us are diminished by a judiciary that legislates from the bench and denies basic rights drawn from a Constitution they are paid to uphold. Maryland has gone down the road of Soviet style justice disregarding fairness for expediency and judicial balance for a convoluted interpretation of Maryland law. Marylanders, your courts are an extension of the same great party that is presently destroying America, wakeup or you will be engulfed by their flagrant disregard for your rights too. Mark Davis MD, author of Demons of Democracy. platomd@gmail.com

Maryland Board of Medicine: Death to Due Process

Maryland Board Physicians: death of due process

Recent articles in this column concerning the Maryland Board of Physicians have generated a landslide of emails to this author from the physician populace. Relating stories of abusive peer review, these practitioners of the medical arts have been prosecuted civilly for a gamut of accusations. Collectively these legal interactions have a few glaring similarities. Due process has been abbreviated, circumvented and or abrogated totally. Maryland Attorney General’s office aggressively pursues cases against physicians in the name of the Board of Physicians and they don’t like to lose. Well known to most physicians who have been under the hammer of scurrilous Board of Physician actions is the deficit of written guidelines promulgated to perform medical record reviews. Physicians are left in virtual limbo because the Board and its legal minions can create regulatory structure as they process cases against your favorite physician. Most physicians are unaware that a book of fictitious standards of care exists somewhere in the Board’s inner sanctum. Judicial fingers have attempted to pry this opus from the Board of Physicians’ grasp without success. Yet physicians are subjected to its tenets at nearly every inquisition. Reactive not proactive, the Board has trivialized the practice of medicine by micromanaging and second guessing physician decisions. Composed of a group of people that is 40% non-physician, this politicized entity has very little expertise in the very field they are empowered to regulate. With the release of the scorching Legislative Audit against those who manage the Board of Physicians, a deeper concern arises from the muck. Maryland Attorney General’s Office collectively is supposed to know Maryland Law and carry it out as written, unfortunately they don’t. Strong evidence exists that the highest legal officers in the state have distorted, misrepresented and even outright lied to receptive Maryland Courts when processing physician cases. More egregious, Maryland’s Appellate Courts have legislated from the bench bypassing clearly written Maryland Law and Mandate to give a win to the Board and its legal counsel. Those who reside in the two ivory towers of medical elitism believe they are safe from the gunners that target physicians outside their domains, they are wrong. History of the elite displays they can be victimized too.  Every physician should read this report (Sunset Review of the Maryland Board of Physicians and the Related Allied Health Advisory Committees) to learn how Maryland is carelessly and reprehensibly managing medical licensing. Physicians have very little protection from the deleterious hands of this entity since their Medical Society is completely impotent. Those of you foolishly paying dues to this organization, think twice. Hard times for medicine are here, we don’t need an irresponsible administrative authority to make those times worse. Mark Davis MD, author of Demons of Democracy, President of Healthnets Review Services. platomd@gmail.com

Maryland Judiciary; Can they be trusted

Maryland’s Judiciary: can they be trusted

Marylanders must confront reality, they may not always receive justice under a judicial system that costs them hundreds of millions to support. Revisionists in black gowns have become habituated to reframing laws with interpretations that are far from their initial intent. Classically judgments would be based on facts, exculpatory documents, transcripts and other solid pieces of evidence that support your claim. In Maryland Courts outcomes are now based on considerations that go far beyond distinguishing right from the indecent. In two recent cases before the Howard and Harford Circuit Courts respectively, my own experiences denote the “new justice” that Marylanders can expect from their Courts. As a pro se in both cases the judges opined for the Maryland Board of Physicians though the facts were “200” percent against them. As president of Healthnets Review Services, factual accuracy is the basis of a research organization such as ours. This accuracy was embedded into the legal briefs before both courts. The Courts’ had to know that the lawyers for the Maryland Attorney Generals’ Office (AG) were lying in open court and in their legal briefs or they had no business being judges. Worse the Appellate Courts have allowed similar activities by state employed attorneys from the AG’s office without sanctioning them. Perhaps these judges had aged out, both were in their sixties. Or worse, they were medicated which impaired their judgments. If not, Maryland has an implicit problem in its courts where they will allow the state to triumph when all the facts are against them. The only conclusion one can draw is Maryland Courts can no longer be trusted to provide sound and unbiased judgments when a petitioner sues a state administrative authority because the fix is in. Mark Davis, MD President of Healthnets Review Services.   platomd@gmail.com