Tom Pender successfully gets multimillion dollar class action suit dismissed

 
Tom Pender has successfully defended a class action suit against EMC Insurance. On April 5, 2012, Judge William Mudge of the Circuit Court of Madison County, Illinois issued a ruling on Tom's motion for de-certification of class in the case of Frank C. Bemis, D.C. v. Employers Mutual Casualty Company. The case is a $7 million class action suit filed on behalf of all medical providers in the State of Illinois seeking recovery of PPO reductions taken on patient bills since February of 2004. Dr. Bemis and the class members voluntarily signed on to the PPO agreements and agreed to take reduced payments, but later claimed that carriers were not entitled to take the reductions. In August of 2010, Judge Daniel Stack certified the class of Illinois providers in their action against EMC. Judge Stack subsequently retired and the PPO cases were re-assigned to Judge Mudge. Tom filed a motion for reconsideration of Judge Stack's order based upon the recent Fifth District Appellate Court decision in Coy v. Travelers Insurance, 409 Ill.App.3d 1114 (5th Dist. 2011). In his recent order, Judge Mudge agreed that the Coy decision was binding precedent and de-certified the class against EMC. Of significance, the Court also found that the plaintiff's claims lacked merit and that "...EMC had a legal basis for taking PPO discounts."