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Civil lawsuit against mental health agency

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Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
2006 Code of Virginia § 32.1-127.1:03 - Health records privacy
This is all I Know, part of the reason I came here... Was to maybe be guided to more.
There is a federal case underway for criminal charges...
I'll try one more time...if you fail to understand, then it's because you're being deliberately obtuse:

The release of records by the facility, while improper (giving you the benefit of the doubt), did not cause you any damages. Period. Even if, and, or but.
 


Silverplum

Senior Member
2006 Code of Virginia § 32.1-127.1:03 - Health records privacy
This is all I Know, part of the reason I came here... Was to maybe be guided to more.
There is a federal case underway for criminal charges...
But you know VA doesn't apply to you.

Aren't you also beyond the SOL?
 

Paleogirl

Junior Member
I'll try one more time...if you fail to understand, then it's because you're being deliberately obtuse:

The release of records by the facility, while improper (giving you the benefit of the doubt), did not cause you any damages. Period. Even if, and, or but.

I was responding to a question by Ohiogal Zinger. she asked what laws were broken. I'm not doing anything deliberately. if someone can get 1.4 million and the records weren't even shared with a 3rd party like in my case, that is what has me questioning your comment. This woman sued for invasion of privacy, and other things, I don't remember what but its in the article I posted. I realize this is in a different state than the Walgreens case but I did have financial and emotional damages and so did my daughter having to be involved unjustly in the custody case for her brother.
I would not have hired an attorney for a mere visitation change. my sons father and I were getting along and the visitation not an issue at the time. It was not until his GF came into the picture, unfortunately we all had a long history, two decades as a matter of fact. So, in the past I hurt her, she had hurt me even before my children were born. Once my son was born she verbally threatened to take him from me and a year later she nearly did by breaking the law.

I suppose I have a civil case against her but she's going to prison so its not even worth it. And if an entity has no duty to audit their records regularly or restrict access from records to those that do not need to see them, then I guess I wouldn't have a case.

everyones healthcare info is at risk in the same way I guess, scary!
 

tranquility

Senior Member
if someone can get 1.4 million and the records weren't even shared with a 3rd party like in my case, that is what has me questioning your comment.
Holy firetruck balls!, I've had two notifications from my medical providers my information has been compromised. (Insurance company and medical group.) $1.4 million per violation? Awesome! Sign me up.

Now, my records were not compromised by malfeasance, but by misfeasance, but it seems like I should join the ride on the gravy train.

Look, we all understand you feel you have been hurt. Your later claims in this thread are of no merit. But, is there ANYTHING you can claim?

That is so fact sensitive and difficult that we simply cannot advise here. To me, claiming against the agency is a non-starter for any of a number of reasons. Claiming against a specific person for specific acts as related to what they provably know? Maybe.

In reality, the bottom line is that the current scheme that all health records must be electronic, guarantees they will be public and violated in some way. Those who demanded such for our benefit, had no idea of the reality. To be sure, great strides are being made in medical care from the ability to farm the data. As well, it is different to have a specific violation over a general one.

The problem you face is to make a differentiation (Praise Jesus for spell check.) and prove the difference caused you damages. The link for your damages will be hard, as will the amount of the damages. The times a cost of defense is "damages" are statutory and rare. I don't think we have statutory damages here.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I was responding to a question by Ohiogal Zinger. she asked what laws were broken. I'm not doing anything deliberately. if someone can get 1.4 million and the records weren't even shared with a 3rd party like in my case, that is what has me questioning your comment. This woman sued for invasion of privacy, and other things, I don't remember what but its in the article I posted. I realize this is in a different state than the Walgreens case but I did have financial and emotional damages and so did my daughter having to be involved unjustly in the custody case for her brother.
I would not have hired an attorney for a mere visitation change. my sons father and I were getting along and the visitation not an issue at the time. It was not until his GF came into the picture, unfortunately we all had a long history, two decades as a matter of fact. So, in the past I hurt her, she had hurt me even before my children were born. Once my son was born she verbally threatened to take him from me and a year later she nearly did by breaking the law.

I suppose I have a civil case against her but she's going to prison so its not even worth it. And if an entity has no duty to audit their records regularly or restrict access from records to those that do not need to see them, then I guess I wouldn't have a case.

everyones healthcare info is at risk in the same way I guess, scary!
You still do not get what I was trying to tell you.

Yes, she violated the law and she is being punished for it. You also said that the entity was being fined so they are being punished for it as well.

However, the fact that your son's father ended up getting the records was legal. Your daughter's father had every right to the records and every right to do whatever he wants with them.

If you were going to sue anybody, it would be your daughter's father since he is the one who officially and legally released the records to your son's father and his attorney. However, since he had the right to do that, its unlikely you would get anywhere with suing him.
 

Paleogirl

Junior Member
You still do not get what I was trying to tell you.

Yes, she violated the law and she is being punished for it. You also said that the entity was being fined so they are being punished for it as well.

However, the fact that your son's father ended up getting the records was legal. Your daughter's father had every right to the records and every right to do whatever he wants with them.

If you were going to sue anybody, it would be your daughter's father since he is the one who officially and legally released the records to your son's father and his attorney. However, since he had the right to do that, its unlikely you would get anywhere with suing him.

So I found some things. And it definitely points to how difficult it is to prove things in regards to the me filing a complaint. I found all the numbers my state limits civil suits to. I also found out its customary to give 40% to an attorney representing you. The article below shows that if I filed it would likely go to my states supreme court.
I'd likely not have much leftover after paying an attorney anyway. So while I think my current situation is bad, it seems as though the stress and time to take this on isn't worth and wold cause me a lot more distress.
Hopefully I can just continue to work with agencies to up the security of records and perhaps get involved at a state level as well. No one should have to go through things like this.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I will leave you all with this link.

http://www.law360.com/articles/603198/tracking-hipaa-liability-trends-at-the-state-level
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
So I found some things. And it definitely points to how difficult it is to prove things in regards to the me filing a complaint. I found all the numbers my state limits civil suits to. I also found out its customary to give 40% to an attorney representing you. The article below shows that if I filed it would likely go to my states supreme court.
I'd likely not have much leftover after paying an attorney anyway. So while I think my current situation is bad, it seems as though the stress and time to take this on isn't worth and wold cause me a lot more distress.
Hopefully I can just continue to work with agencies to up the security of records and perhaps get involved at a state level as well. No one should have to go through things like this.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I will leave you all with this link.

http://www.law360.com/articles/603198/tracking-hipaa-liability-trends-at-the-state-level
That doesn't actually say what you seem to think it says ...
 
The OP said "The opposing sides attorney employed the woman who stole my daughters records after she got fired from the healthcare office, she was her office person throughout the custody case and she had a part in faxing the request for medical records release to the attorney by my daughters father...even my daughters GAL was furious over how everything went down."

Right here is a big conflict of interest: the woman who illegally got the daughter's records was employed by the opposing counsel during the custody case. That would have been grounds to have opposing counsel removed from the case.

No one picked this up? Really?
 

quincy

Senior Member
The OP said "The opposing sides attorney employed the woman who stole my daughters records after she got fired from the healthcare office, she was her office person throughout the custody case and she had a part in faxing the request for medical records release to the attorney by my daughters father...even my daughters GAL was furious over how everything went down."

Right here is a big conflict of interest: the woman who illegally got the daughter's records was employed by the opposing counsel during the custody case. That would have been grounds to have opposing counsel removed from the case.

No one picked this up? Really?
That was post number 22, right? It seems unlikely that the attorney would hire the son's girlfriend who was fired from the health agency and facing federal charges. But, even if that were the case, because that information was not deemed important enough to include in post number 1, it is open to question why it was included at all. It is an odd afterthought.

That said, no, it would not really have been grounds to have opposing counsel removed from the case. The health information came to the attorney by way of the daugher's father, who was helping out (for some reason) the father of the son.

Read LdiJ's posts 16 and 39, Blue Meanie's post 18, and Ohiogal's post 26. They explain this thread about as well as this thread can be explained.
 
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