The Joel Bieber Firm

The game of Jeopardy always pulls me in. It’s not destination television for me;  But, if I happen to see it on TV, I can’t help it, I start playing along.

I guess it wouldn’t surprise you to find that there’s a ” top 1o most memorable moments” for Jeopardy. (see, I always do this to myself. This wasn’t really supposed to be a blog about Jeopardy) I was a bit  surprised that one of those moments was Alex Trebek took the stage with a suit…. but without the pants, to “relieve the tension” of the players. Yes, I’m not sure where to go from there for the blog… so drive home safely…..  But I digress, we march on.

In many of my cases, the client will bring in a receipt for a gym membership. The defense attorney usually tries to attack or make fun of exercise. Numerous times I’ve heard , “Sure, we all would like to have someone pay for our gym membership”.

In those cases, a doctor usually has prescribed the membership and has also directed home exercises. It’s a situation where I can just advise the jury of the expense, and tell them that they  can consider or throw it out, when determining their verdict. A doctor may testify to it as well. In a claim, it’s usually a very small expense in a big medical expense  case.

Some employers give employees a gym membership as part of their pay package.  We do have a small health program that includes an office competition,  but we’re not quite to that gym benefit level yet. (Future Goals)

In Virginia Beach, a story popped up a couple of years ago involving their Public Works Director. Periodically, I would google it to see if there had been any follow-up stories.

If we were playing Jeopardy, someone would probably say, “I’ll take  the “category Fitness Man for $200 Alex”.  It all started because in 2007, Virginia Beach included a $200 fitness payment package, as part of employee benefits.

In 2010, the Princess Anne Recreation Center staff became suspicious of a well-dressed man who never seemed to break a sweat,  as he would come and go. When they scanned his card, he wasn’t carrying a gym bag. Now eyebrows were being raised. They did notice that this man in suit and tie would sometimes head right for the game room.

After investigation of the “suited workout man”, it was determined that this Public Works Director was abusing the city’s Fitness Incentive Tracking (FIT) program, because surveillance video showed that he was “in the game room…played a game of pool; not in workout clothes”.

The City Auditor determined that this Director was no longer entitled to his bonus workout benefit, for using free city facilities and turning in his attendance to receive his FIT benefit for paycheck credit. After investigation, the deputy city manager told the newspaper reporter that “I cannot substantiate that (Director name) willingly and deceitfully circumvented the FIT program”.

Maybe he did think that FIT could include POOL  in the game room. I did look google the VB employee and it shows that he is still Director of Public Works in Virginia Beach; even after an auditor’s report called for him to be fired.

I hesitated to write this blog because I don’t know him. I suspect that this was just a small item in his public service. That’s why I didn’t name him in the blog. The blog attachments provide more substantive information.

When I saw this article back then, it made me think of  my clients who really do workout and are just trying to get better from the crash. I guess defense attorneys are less apt to question pain pills than someone exercising. Again, that’s why I count on the jury!

And for pic o” day I thought I would post one of the collection of unusual family photos, from the Internet. Also a good reminder that we should all keep working out!

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