Weekly Edition

READ COMMENTS

• The VLW Blog » Bar takes up client protection issues, on July 30th, 2008 at 11:20 am said:

  […] we reported last month, recent attorney defalcations in Virginia have been costly to clients and others.  The damage […]

• Birgit H. LeBLanc, on November 14th, 2008 at 7:29 pm said:

  I am one of the victims of Mr. Stephen T. Conrad. I was involved in a slip and fall in the bathroom on the same floor I worked and Mr. Conrad told me that I was going to have medical protection from the day (03-18-02) of the fall and that this would never end. Well, when I was made aware of his misconduct and called the Worker’s Comp. Commission in Richmond, VA I was informed that Mr. Conrad had settled the case and that I was not medically covered any longer. I have already lost 6 + years in earnings from work (roughly $400,000.00) and, since 09/04 receive Disability. That amount (now $783.00) doesn’t even cover my mortgage. I am a single Mom of a now 17 yr. old boy, who is in his last year of High School. His college dreams are over, because I had to not only use up all my savings but also his HS fund, just to live and pay the bills. Our lives have drastically changed, and although it’s not Mr. Conrad’s fault that I fell on a chemically treated, wet floor (without any warning signs posted), he was responsible for my restitution, as he was for so many other clients, Unfortunately, I have fallen so ill and have become bedridden in 09-07, with what is called “extreme Fibromyalgia” and onset MS, due to the repetitive trauma from the fall and a rear end collision in 04-02, only 5 short weeks after the fall. I had to have surgery from the fall and broke my wrist but those injuries healed. However, the back, neck and head trauma injuries never did heal and turned into that excruciating disease (Fibromyalgia), which hasn’t even been recognized by the modern medical profession until recently. Trust me, the pictures you see in the commercial for the first approved medicine are all true.
  And to make matters worse, all of the lawyers I tried to retain, either made up excuses not to represent me as soon as they heard the name Conrad, or told me that I was too far away from their home office, although they all claimed to cover the Northern VA and MD area. Lies, I’ve been living with so many lies and promises and today, Mr. Conrad was sentenced to 11 yrs, in prison. Will that heal me? NO! Will I receive restitution for the years of work I have lost (the past 6 1/2 as well as the next 20?) NO! My son and I live in a home with open ceilings due to unrelated water damages and my insures will not cover it. And how much can a little boy (he was only 10 when all this happened) do? Sure, he is 17 now, but who will give him back his “lost” childhood? Next October he will be 18 and out of HS and then what? All his future dreams gone; all he ever comes home to is a mother who lies in bed 24/7. He has to prepare meals, if he wants to eat and do the grocery shopping as well. All because of a greedy, dishonest person, who will be released from prison and can pick up his life where he left off….
  My depression regarding being bedridden and feeling worthless is getting worse by the day and with nothing but Medicare, I can’t even get proper treatment. Beside, how many doctors will still make house-calls. My present physician is almost 30 miles up I-95 and even though my son drives me, the minute we get back home I brake out in tears that shake my body. So, tell me, where do we stand? Is it even a life worth living for……