Another Out of-State Law Firm Sets Up Shop in LR.

Hare Wynn Newell & Newton of Birmingham Focuses on Nursing Home Litigation 

WEEKS AFTER SERVING AS local co-counsel in an El Dorado case in which a nursing home was ordered to pay almost $3 million to the survivors of a former patient, Clark W. Mason opened a Little Rock office for the law firm of Hare Wynn Newell & Newton of Birmingham, Ala.

Mason, 41, who was formerly a solo practitioner in Little Rock, said last week that Hare Wynn Newell & Newton was "not at all" similar to Wilkes &McHugh, the Florida nursing home litigation firm that set up shop in Little Rock in 1998. The firm's literature indicates that its history dates back to 1890, and that it has historically represented plaintiffs in tort cases ranging from personal injury to product liability to air crashes.

But Hare Wynn's Web site, www.hwnn.com, suggests that nursing home litigation is the primary pursuit of the Little Rock office that opened in January.

"While our Arkansas office will continue to represent clients from all walks of life, our Little Rock office focuses primarily on representing the elderly and their families in cases involving nursing home neglect and abuse," according to the description of the Little Rock office on the firm's Internet site.

Mason, an El Dorado native, is the only attorney in the Little Rock office so far. He said more attorneys would likely be added in the future. The office is currently pursing 14 lawsuits against nursing homes in Arkansas, he said.

The Web site's biography page for Mason lists "nursing home abuse/neglect" first among his several practice areas. Nursing home litigation is also listed as a practice area for Hare Wynn attorneys Nolan E. Awbrey and James Thompson Jr., who in October joined Mason in trying the case brought by relatives of the late Paul Prothro, an Alzheimer's disease patients who was a resident of Hillsboro Manor Nursing Home in El Dorado.

After a Union County civil jury awarded Prothro's estate and survivors $2.98 million in actual and punitive damages, an attorney for Hillsboro Manor said the verdict would be appealed. Mason said it was, instead, settled for an amount kept confidential.

After that, Hare Wynn decided to set up its first satellite office.

"Hare Wynn and Igo back a long way, to 1985," Mason said. "So it was really not so much a decision that it was fertile ground for nursing home litigation, but really an opportunity for us to formalize a relationship that over the years had been an informal relationship."

Mason previously had "a consistent practice in nursing home litigation and general health law, including hospital law," he said. And while he had previously represented parties on both sides, "it's fair to say that the primary focus of my practice now will be from a plaintiff's viewpoint."

Nursing Homes Not Worried

The nursing home industry has been critical of Wilkes & McHugh, the Tampa, Fla., firm whose Little Rock office has filed more than 100 lawsuits against nursing homes in Arkansas.

But Randy Wyatt, executive director of the Arkansas Health Care Association, said the industry wasn't concerned about the arrival of another out-of-state law firm with nursing home litigation as its goal. Credited for this new-found confidence is a "quality assurance fee" passed by the General Assembly and a new reimbursement formula approved by federal regulators last month that considers the actual cost of care. The quality assurance fee, commonly known as a bed tax, is expected to pump an additional $90 million-$130 million a year into reimbursements in Arkansas, where Medicaid pays for three-quarters of nursing home patients.

"With the new cost-based reimbursement system and the ability to put most of the new money in the system into direct patient car, we think there will be a lot fewer complaints and a lot fewer lawsuits on the b basis of quality of care," Wyatt said.

The additional money, which has already started flowing into the facilities, will help attract a d retain good workers with better wages and benefits, Wyatt said. "I think you'll see a lot more consistency," he said.

"I certainly hope and pray that Mr. Wyatt is 100 percent accurate in his assessment," Mason said.