Judith E. Ashton, Author at ILLEGALS

4 Terms I Wish I Understood When I Signed up for Health Insurance

Posted on October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

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I chose a health insurance plan with the lowest monthly premium.
I would have chosen a different plan if I knew what the terms like deductible and co-insurance meant.
Next year, I’ll weigh the pros and cons of having a higher monthly payment vs. a higher deductible.

I was 30 years old when I started my first full-time, corporate job (which was here at Insider). Before that, I worked as a freelancer and dependent on California state’s health insurance, Medi-Cal, for two years. Back in New York, when I was working in the fashion industry, I worked at a startup that only offered one affordable health insurance option.

Working full-time at Insider is the first time I’ve had to choose between different tiers of health insurance plans. While I did my best to research my options, I still felt unprepared to make the decision. There are four terms I wish I’d known before choosing my current plan.

1. Out-of-network provider

Thanks to Medi-Cal, I was able to find a physical therapist just a 10-minute drive from my house to help me prepare for and recover from top surgery, and I didn’t have a copay. My new health insurance through work is accepted nationwide, but I noticed more providers on the east coast were in-network than providers on the west coast, where I live.

It turns out that my physical therapist didn’t

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Newly freed Adnan Syed surprises law students with a lesson on his case

Posted on October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

Syed spoke to students in the school’s innocence clinic on Oct. 18
He was released from prison in September after 22 years

Oct 21 – Less than a month after a judge vacated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction, the newly freed 41-year-old spent two hours this week taking 14 University of Baltimore law students through the history of his case.

Syed, whose case was featured in the popular 2014 true crime podcast “Serial,” was a surprise guest speaker in professor Erica Suter’s innocence project clinic on October 18.

“It was an extremely special experience for everyone because you got to see, ‘Oh, this is what can happen when you put the work in and you fight until the very end of the case,’” said third-year Baltimore law student Amy Werner.

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Syed was convicted of the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee and sentenced to life in prison. But Syed, who was 17 at the time of the murder, maintained his innocence and supporters raised questions about the integrity of his prosecution.

Suter began working on his case in 2020 and eventually teamed up with attorney Becky Feldman, who heads the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office Sentencing Review Unit, to file a petition for DNA testing. They also uncovered a Brady violation when the original prosecutors failed to disclose two other suspects to Syed’s defense.

A judge vacated Syed’s conviction on Sept. 19, and ordered him released after more than two decades in prison. Lee’s family has filed a notice of appeal, while prosecutors dropped the case against Syed on Oct. 11.

Visiting her clinic was Syed’s idea, Suter said, though she worried that it might be too soon amid his transition to life outside of prison.

“We are in

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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser attends lavish event in Hawaii paid for by corporations he’s suing

Posted on October 23, 2022October 23, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

An investigation by CBS News Colorado reveals how state attorneys general, including Colorado AG Phil Weiser, are attending lavish events funded, in part, by companies they’re suing and investigating.

An organization called the Attorney General Alliance – made up of 48 attorneys general – is at the center of it all. Weiser is Chair of the organization.

It’s a private club that corporations and lobbyist organizations pay tens of thousands of dollars to belong to. Their membership buys them access to extravagant events where they can schmooze the top legal officers for state government, individuals who have sole discretion over whether to sue, settle, or investigate them.

CBS News Colorado received video of the group’s 2021 annual conference in Maui from a Republican group. While its motives are political, the events in question include AGs from both parties.

The video shows Weiser and other AGs at the Grand Wailea Resort, a place billed as a “tropical oceanfront paradise” with “luxurious accommodations” that start at a thousand dollars a night, but AGs didn’t have to pay a dime.

A screenshot of the Grand Wailea Resort’s website shows rates for rooms at the Waldorf Astoria-owned resort in Maui.

Screenshot of www.grandwailea.com

Their stay was compliments of taxpayers and sponsors, including corporations like Google, Facebook, Juul, and Pfizer – all of which AGs were suing at the time. The events have been happening quietly for years.

Now, for the first time, someone with inside knowledge of the gatherings is speaking out, in an exclusive interview with CBS4.

“To me, it’s Ethics 101 that you don’t take advantage of a situation that’s being funded by organizations that you’re suing or investigating,” says Chris Toth, the former executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General, a quasi- governmental organization that provides training and

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Civil rights attorneys make 2nd attempt to sue Oregon over public defense failures

Posted on October 23, 2022October 23, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

Oregon is once again being sued over the state’s troubled public defense system, which has left hundreds of people facing criminal charges without the court-appointed attorneys that they’re entitled to under the US Constitution.

As of Wednesday, roughly 831 people in Oregon were facing criminal charges without attorneys, according to the Oregon Judicial Department. Of those, 45 people were in custody without an attorney.

Related: Listen to “OPB Politics Now”: Oregon’s public defender crisis explodes into public view

This is the second attempt this year by civil rights attorneys to sue the state over its failure to provide attorneys, “in clear violation of basic standards of justice and long-settled state and federal law,” as the most recent lawsuit states. The original lawsuit was dismissed after a judge ruled that she didn’t have jurisdiction to even hear the case, let alone determine it was a class action. She was also unwilling to make a declaration that the defendants’ rights were being violated.

Multinomah County Justice Center front. — A file photo of the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland, which houses a jail and four courtrooms. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Court is seeking class-action status over Oregon’s failure to provide defense attorneys to people charged with crimes and unable to afford a lawyer.

*Amanda Troxler*

Like the previous lawsuit, this new complaint was filed by attorneys working with the nonprofit Oregon Justice Resource Center. It was filed on Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court on behalf of the four defendants charged with crimes and who cannot afford an attorney. Despite the four asking for public defenders to handle their cases, the lawsuit states, Oregon did not appoint attorneys for any of them.

In addition to the state of Oregon, the lawsuit names Jessica Kampfe, who was hired less than a week ago

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Neymar Serving Jail Time for Spanish Fraud Case ‘Very Improbable’: Lawyer

Posted on October 22, 2022October 22, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

Brazilian soccer star Neymar is currently on trial for fraud and corruption charges that prosecutors are hoping will result in a two-year prison sentence, but one lawyer claims that outcome to be unlikely.

In 2013, Neymar—whose full name is Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior—transferred from the Brazilian soccer club Santos to play for Barcelona, before leaving in 2017 to play for his current team, Paris Saint-Germain. However, during the transfer from Santos to Barcelona, a Brazilian investment firm called DIS claims that it owned a 40 percent stake in Neymar’s rights while he was at Santos, which it did not receive upon the transfer.

The investment firm claims that Neymar and eight other parties are responsible for trying to hide the true amount of the transfer fee so they did not have to pay DIS the full amount. It is reported that DIS received $16.6 million as a transfer fee, but an investigative judge found that the transfer fee was at least $81.2 million.

TOPSHOT-FBL-SPAIN-BRAZIL-TRIAL — Here, Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar gestures as he leaves after attending a hearing at the courthouse in Barcelona on October 18, 2022, on the second day of his trial. He testified that his father handled all of the contracts and allegedly he did not remember if he took part in the negotiations leading to the agreement in 2011 with Barcelona, and a lawyer told Newsweek that it is highly improbable that he will face jail time.
JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images

Neymar took the stand on Tuesday and tested that he took no part in the negotiations over his transfer to Barcelona, and the other defendants have all denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the accusations do not apply to the Spanish court, as all the operations happened in Brazil where “corruption in business” is

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Japan to integrate health insurance cards into My Number digital ID in digitization push

Posted on October 22, 2022October 22, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

The Japanese government has unveiled plans to discontinue its current health insurance card system and integrate its functionalities within the My Number digital ID infrastructure, phasing out the existing system by fall 2024, reports the Asahi Shimbun.

The intentions were revealed by Digital Minister Taro Kono earlier this month at Japan’s Digital Day events, alongside other plans for the country’s digitization, reports GovInsider Asia.

By integrating health insurance cards into My Number, Japanese citizens will be able to automate healthcare access at medical institutions via face biometrics checks and allow doctors and pharmacists to easily view information, including prescription records and medical checkups, after obtaining patients’ consent.

At the same time, according to the Asahi Shimbun, only around 30 percent of medical institutions and pharmacies currently have dedicated card readers for My Number installed, and only about 20 percent of the population have registered My Number cards for use as health insurance certificates so far.

To speed up the process, the Japanese government said it intends to require healthcare facilities to introduce the digital ID readers starting in April 2023.

Kono, who was the driving force behind the elimination of carved hanko ink seals in Japan and the overseer of COVID-19 vaccine rollout, clarified that the government will ensure all residents have time to register to use their health insurance cards with My Number before abolishing the current system.

As of September, the overall issuance rate of My Number IC chip-embedded plastic identity card and connected digital IDs stood at 49 percent. The government hopes almost all citizens can obtain My Number cards by March 2023.

Kono also confirmed plans to incorporate the driver’s license into the My Number digital ID by the end of March 2025, or potentially sooner. Unlike the health insurance cards, however, the

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Trump Claims 9 White House Records Are His Personal Property

Posted on October 22, 2022October 22, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

Donald Trump is claiming several documents from his time in the White House are his personal property.
The DOJ filed a letter refuting his claims and saying the records belong at the National Archives.
The FBI secluded thousands of documents during an August raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Former President Donald Trump and the Justice Department are already at odds over the first batch of government-seized White House documents set to undergo early review by a special master — and there are still thousands of records let to be examined.

The DOJ outlined the dispute in a Thursday night letter to Judge Raymond J. Dearie, who has been tasked with overseeing a review of the more than 13,000 documents hidden by the FBI during an August raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

According to the letter, Trump is claiming that nine of the 15 documents included in the first batch to be reviewed are his personal property and should be returned to him. The government, however, disagrees and scoffed at Trump’s suggestion that the records from his time in the White House are protected by executive privilege, saying the official documents should be deposited to the National Archives.

The conflict likely signals further legal battles to come over the thousands of records yet to be reviewed in the DOJ’s probe into whether Trump mishandled official White House records following his departure from office.

Among the disputed documents in the initial bunch are materials related to six clemency requests from Trump’s time in office, according to the DOJ letter, which said the records include “supporting materials and relate to the president’s ‘power to grant reprieves and pardons for

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Judge says Trump knew his voter fraud numbers were false, orders ex-lawyer to give more emails to Jan. 6 committee

Posted on October 21, 2022October 21, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered lawyer John Eastman, a key figure in former President Donald Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election results, to turn over 33 new documents to the House Jan. 6 committee, including a number that the judge found are exempt from attorney-client privilege because they relate to a crime or an attempted crime.

In his orderUS District Judge David Carter of Central California found Eastman should hand over eight documents under the “crime-fraud exception” to attorney-client and attorney work privileges.

According to the judge, Eastman said in one of the email exchanges that Trump was aware that the number of voter fraud cases his team was alleging in a federal lawsuit challenging the election results in Georgia was “inaccurate.” But, the judge said, Trump signed off on the suit, “swearing under oath” that the numbers were correct, anyway.

The email exchange centered on Trump’s legal team’s plan to use the same highly inflated fraud numbers it had used in a state court suit in early December 2020, alleging that Fulton County, Georgia, “improperly counted a number of votes including 10,315 deceased people, 2,560 felons, and 2,423 unregistered voters,” the ruling said.

But on Dec. 30, 2020 — before the federal filing — “Eastman relayed ‘concerns’ from President Trump’s team ‘about including specific numbers in the paragraph dealing with felons, deceased, moved, etc.,'” Carter said.

Eastman said in an email the next day that “although the President signed a verification for [the state court filing] back on Dec. 1, he has since been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate.”

“For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate,” Eastman wrote.

Nevertheless, Carter noted, “Trump and

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Bright Health pulls out of Colorado insurance market

Posted on October 21, 2022October 21, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

Health insurance company Bright Health announced Tuesday that it won’t offer insurance plans in Colorado next year, meaning roughly 55,000 people in the state will need to find new coverage.

The decision is part of a move by Bright to pull out of every state in which it operates but two — Florida and California — as it struggles for profitability.

“The changes announced today give Bright Health a strong and stable platform for profitable growth at much lower risk,” Mike Mikan, the president and CEO of Bright Health Group, said in a statement.

Bright currently offers plans in Colorado on the individual and small group markets, where people buy coverage on their own or where small businesses buy coverage for their employees, respectively. In addition to Colorado, Bright will no longer offer coverage in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee, and it will drop coverage for certain types of plans in Florida.

But the shockwaves will echo especially loudly in Colorado because Bright is intertwined with a major health reform initiative backed by the administration of Gov. Jared Police. Bright is the carrier that offers plans for the Peak Health Alliance, a pioneering “health care purchasing alliance” that unites members of a community to directly negotiate lower prices with local hospitals. As Peak’s selected insurance carrier, Bright then bundles those prices into insurance plans for Peak members. Peak started in Summit County and currently operates in eight western Colorado counties.

Anne Ladd, the CEO of the Peak Health Alliance, said she learned of Bright’s decision to leave Colorado at 5 am Tuesday via a company news release. She said the move means that Peak will not be able to offer plans in 2023 because there is not enough time to team up with a

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Lawyer Based for Representing Brother-in-Law Over Wife’s Sister in Divorce

Posted on October 20, 2022October 20, 2022 by Judith E. Ashton

A lawyer was dragged online for choosing to represent his brother-in-law in divorce proceedings instead of his wife’s sister—and then telling her that he wouldn’t go through with the divorce because she was going to “lose a lot.”

The lawyer’s sister-in-law, u/redpanda891, shared her side of the story with the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole, earning over 20,700 upvotes and 2,600 comments for her post“[Am I the A**hole] for calling my sister’s husband a piece of s**t because he’s representing my ex in our divorce?”

The original poster (OP) says she asked for a divorce two months ago, and discovered a week later that her brother-in-law was going to represent her husband in the proceedings. She said that he’d helped her husband’s career quite a bit, so she wasn’t “completely surprised,” but was “still hurt.”

Though she’s tried to avoid her brother-in-law given the upcoming divorce, her parents threw a family dinner recently. Throughout the dinner, however, she says her brother-in-law still referred to her regularly as her ex’s “wife,” but tension came to a head when he referenced the case.

“[He] told me that if he was me, he would stay married because I was going to lose a lot if I divorced my ex,” u/redpanda891 wrote. “I ended up telling him he was a real piece of s**t in front of everybody, including his daughters.

“My sister got angry at me for saying that in front of her daughters but I was so mad I told her I didn’t care because he was a bast**d so now she’s p**sed at me,” she added, asking if she was in the wrong.

Divorce

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