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SHIN-KICKING DUEL IS A GOOD REASON TO BUY BEST SHOES YOU CAN AFFORD
By Garry Abrams
LOS ANGELES -Beware: litigious podiatrist. That warning probably addresses anyone who contemplates tangling with Garey Lee Weber.
The 60-year-old foot doctor has engaged in a 14-year shin-kicking duel with the state's Board of Podiatric Medicine, the agency charged with keeping California's 1,700 podiatrists on their professional toes.
In addition, Weber, who operates surgery clinics in Studio City, Irvine and Victorville, has been involved in many lawsuits, both as a defendant and as a plaintiff. For instance, Weber is suing for malicious prosecution and conspiracy over a malpractice case stemming from heel surgery. The defendants include Los Angeles attorneys William H. Newkirk and John L. Moriarity, as well as one of Weber's disgruntled patients, the podiatric board's executive officer and two expert witnesses.
Apparently habitually combative and fast on his feet, Weber once "went bare" of liability insurance coverage as a way of evading malpractice claims, according to Newkirk and Weber's attorney, Matthew D. Rifat.
"Cases against an unsecured podiatrist are just unattractive from a practical standpoint," Newkirk told me.
Newkirk believes he and his fellow defendants will prevail in the malicious prosecution action. If Weber should win, it could give plaintiffs' attorneys cold feet about suing hoof healers, Newkirk said, and thus allow predatory podiatrists to prey on a powerless populace perforated with paw problems.
"Podiatristscan actually do a great deal more harm than dentists," Newkirk said. (Now there's a contest! ... Or maybe a reality TV show titled "Survivor, Tooth and Nail.")
Newkirk and Rifat disagree over whether Weber is insured. Rifat conceded that Weber dropped his coverage for a time on the advice of another attorney. But Rifat said he insisted that Weber resume insurance coverage.
Newkirk and Rifat also disagree over Weber's assets. Newkirk said he suspects that Weber has transferred assets to relatives, another tactic to avoid litigation. Rifat said that his client isn't starving but that Weber isn't Big Foot moneywise.
"He is an average guy in terms of podiatry," Rifat said.
The Weber drama reached a climax of sorts last week.
On Tuesday, the Sacramento-based podiatric board announced it had revoked Weber's license, effective June 13, because Weber allegedly violated the probation imposed by the board two years ago. However, on Friday, a Sacramento Superior Court judge stayed the revocation and set a hearing on the matter for October.
Nonetheless, the revocation won Weber a mention on "Quackwatch," a Web site that covers doctor discipline.
In a release, the board said Weber "followed a continuing pattern and practice of doing everything he could, either directly or through his attorney, to frustrate compliance with the terms and conditions of probation."
It further noted that Weber and the board have been at odds since 1987, when the board sought a court order requiring Weber and other podiatrists to "halt alleged unethical business practices and grossly substandard treatment."
In 1990, Weber and the other podiatrists settled the action by paying $420,000 in "cost recovery" to the board, according to the board's press release.
The release also reported that the California attorney general's office recommended yanking Weber's ticket in part because of testimony from the board's probation officer that Weber "was the most difficult probationer he has had in nearly 200 cases."
The board's decision cited "months and months of resistance, delay and obfuscation" by Weber.
Terms of Weber's probation included supervision by a "practice monitor" and providing access to all patient records.
When the board put Weber on probation in 1999, it singled out the podiatrist's use of an unauthorized surgical technique for removing bunions - generically called a bunionectomy – and unauthorized post-operative care that eschewed casts, leaving patients to "bear weight" on their feet "immediately after surgery."
Jim Rathlesberger, the podiatric board's executive officer, asserted that Weber and some allies are behind a score of lawsuits filed against the board. The purpose of the suits, Rathlesberger maintained, is to bankrupt the board, which has a budget of $1 million raised mainly from licensing and other fees, through litigation costs.
Meanwhile, Rifat enthusiastically agrees that he and his client would love to knock the legs out from under the podiatric board.
The tale of Weber and the podiatric board "is potentially an enormous story about regulatory abuse," Rifat said, noting that he has hired a lobbyist to persuade state legislators to abolish the podiatry board.
My conclusion: Always buy the best shoes you can possibly afford.
