Women pursuing claims over breast implants to see further delays

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Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/13872698.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006

Women pursuing claims over breast implants to see further delays

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT

Detroit Free Press

DETROIT - Fourteen years after federal regulators banned silicone

breast implants for commercial use, thousands of women still haven't

received a penny for legal claims that the implants damaged their

health.

And starting Wednesday, processing of the cases will slow even more

for two months while the court-appointed Settlement Facility-Dow

Corning Trust installs a new computer system.

The administrator of the facility, appointed last May by U.S.

District Judge Hood, promises that the new computer system,

plus a few additional employees, will allow most claims to be

reviewed - but not necessarily paid - by September.

" I predict that by the end of October of this year, every single

pending claim will have been reviewed, and people will have heard

from us, " said Austern, claims administrator of facility.

There is no payment deadline, but letters the facility sent in June

2004 led many claimants and their attorneys to believe they would

receive money soon. They say their calls and letters have been

ignored and that the court in Detroit promised a system that would

allow them to track their cases electronically, which was

implemented this year.

To get access to the system, claimants or their attorneys need

passwords, and so far mostly large law firms have been the ones to

get them.

A separate problem is that many courts are so backlogged that cases

lag for years without resolution.

The court will begin installing a new computer system Wednesday that

will, temporarily, halve the number of claims the staff typically

can process, Austern said last week. Retraining the staff on the new

system also will slow processing of claims, he said. " So, for two

months, this will get worse.

" We're not going as fast as we should, " particularly with claims

that implants caused chronic diseases, such as arthritis, he said.

Still, he added, " I'd rate the performance of the facility as very

good ... which is not the same as saying there's room for

improvement. "

Vanera , 58, of West Bloomfield, Mich., is one of thousands

waiting for an answer.

A breast cancer survivor, she had breast implant surgery in 1986 for

reconstruction. She had them removed in 1994 because they caused her

pain, headaches and other problems, she said. The same year, she

filed a claim to be paid for the surgery and implant-related health

bills.

After no response for six years, she hired Clawson lawyer Wilbert

Simkovitz to look into the matter. The facility told him to file

another claim, then told him that her claim was being denied because

she had filed two claims.

Now, the court will recognize only the latter claim filed in 2000,

possibly explaining part of the delay. And still has no idea

where her case stands.

" Why has this taken more than 10 years? " Simkovitz asked. " Where is

the court oversight? "

A spokeswoman for Hood said she does not comment on pending cases

and referred questions to Austern.

Attorneys and women involved in the case said that, before Austern

arrived, the facility challenged many claims on technicalities.

Sometimes it demanded paperwork already filed. Other times, it

nitpicked any discrepancy found.

For example, if a doctor filed records saying a woman's breast

implant had ruptured, but supporting pathology documents mentioned

that the implants had bled or leaked but not ruptured, the facility

would deny the claim, said Doug s, an attorney with Detroit's

Charfoos & Christensen law firm.

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www.BreastImplantAwareness.org