Geoffrey Fieger at press conference (file photo)
The question comes down to this: Did high-profile Southifleld attorney Geoffrey Fieger mislead Lloyd's of London after he put in a $16 million disability claim? Did he appear as a trial lawyer in court when he shouldn't have?
In 2019, Fieger, 72, took out a lucrative policy with the world-famous insurance company, according to a Sunday column in the Detroit Free Press by M.L. Elrick.
Then, according to Elrick:
►In June 2020, a cardiologist informed him his "heart was dangerously enlarged." Months later, he said the doctor insisted he undergo an angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked arteries, Elrick writes.
►On Dec. 4, 2020, attending physician Dr. Michele DeGregorio wrote: "He should never be exposed to significant emotional stress."
►"There is not a more stress-creating occupation than 'trial lawyer,' " Fieger wrote five months later in a disability claim seeking $16 million from Lloyd's of London. "I can no longer do it."
►"Nevertheless, Fieger continued to take high-profile cases and wage war in courtrooms across the country with his customary bravado. Even after asserting that he could no longer argue cases in court, Fieger argued cases in court as the lead attorney on malpractice lawsuits in Florida and Iowa," Elrick writes.
Elrick goes on to raise questions:
But to anyone paying attention to a lawsuit working its way through a courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, the crucial question was not whether Fieger was ill, but whether he had misled Lloyd's of London about how long he had been warned that his heart could be a ticking time bomb — and whether he could walk away from the arena where he made his reputation and his fortune.
Fieger and his firm did not respond to Elrick for comment.
The media reported that Fieger on March 1 had a stroke after an elective procedure "to deal with a minor heart arrhythmia." He's been doing rehab and has not spoken publicly since.
To read Elrick's full column click here.
