[lady lawyer]

Our office is the flyspecking type, but I can see how your version of events could happen. If that is what did happen, and if Terri's family knew Michael was abusive and kept quiet to bleed the doctor, shame on them.

[AnAmericanMother]

I can also see a situation in which the parents were not aware that he was abusive. I have personal experience of this in my family - a relative said she was thinking about divorce, but never said a word about her husband beating her up regularly. It all came out later, through the testimony of neighbors, but her own family didn't have a clue, and neither did her best friend. She put herself in for a world of hurt by not speaking out, but I guess she was ashamed.

I was always the fly-specking kind myself (I've been out of the business 10 years now), but I hear that some insurers have started questioning every tenth of an hour billed and second-guessing the lawyers, to the point of not allowing defense attorneys to take necessary depositions. A lot of my friends are getting out of insurance defense because they don't want some non-lawyer bean counter in Adjusting directing the trial of the case.

[sweetliberty]

" if Terri's family knew Michael was abusive and kept quiet to bleed the doctor, shame on them."

According to Terri's parents, they did NOT know about the abuse. Her brother, Bobby, knew but had kept it from them. I believe they said they didn't know until the time of the case in which they first attempted to have the HINO removed as guardian.