Hundreds in E. Ky. would get chance to reinstate disability benefits under settlement
Hundreds of people in Eastern Kentucky will have a chance to get federal disability benefits restored under a lawsuit settlement, according to attorneys involved in the case.
The agreement is in a case involving former clients of disbarred disability attorney Eric Conn, according to Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who has represented one-time Conn clients through years of litigation.
Many of Conn’s former clients lost disability benefits through the Social Security Administration (SSA) as a result of accusations against Conn that he used fraudulent evidence in their cases in order to win.
Some of those people had a case pending in federal court in London seeking to get back their benefits.
It was filed as a class-action lawsuit. Nine former Conn clients from Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia were the initial plaintiffs, but it potentially could apply to many more people, according to the complaint.
Attorneys for the former Conn clients and for the government have agreed to a settlement in that case under which an estimated 500 people would get benefits reinstated if they seek a new hearing to determine their disability status, Pillersdorf said.
If the people win those re-determination hearings, they would receive six years’ worth of back pay, Pillersdorf and other attorneys said in a release.
“This is a momentous, game-changing settlement,” Pillersdorf said.
Attorneys for the former Conn clients filed a motion this week to dismiss the case.
One issue the lawyers are dealing with is that most of the 500 people don’t know about the lawsuit aimed at restoring their benefits — or the settlement — because of confidentiality in Social Security cases, Pillersdorf said.
The SSA, which has their names, is supposed to notify them of the settlement in the coming months.
In addition, lawyers advocating for the former Conn clients sought to publicize the settlement in order to try to reach people, and plan a meeting at the Floyd County Courthouse Thursday at 2 p.m.
The lawyers will also be trying to recruit other attorneys to volunteer to represent people. A force of volunteers has represented former Conn clients since 2015 in hundreds of hearings at the SSA and in federal district and appellate courts.
Approval of the settlement by the U.S. Department of Justice “was the direct result of successful litigation in multiple federal courts,” attorneys said in the release.
Pillersdorf said the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, often called AppalRed, will be the point of contact for former Conn clients affected by the settlement.
People can call AppalReD at 866-277-5733 or register for help online.
Conn, 62, of Pikeville, was once one of the most successful disability lawyers in the nation before admitting in 2017 that he used fake evidence in claims and paid a Social Security judge more than $600,000 in bribes to approve claims.
Attorneys for his former clients have argued there is no evidence they knew of Conn’s fraud. Many never met him.
Conn pleaded guilty to stealing from the Social Security Administration; bribing Judge David Daugherty; and conspiracy to defraud the SSA, to retaliate against a witness and to escape, for fleeing the country while awaiting sentencing.
The FBI caught him in Honduras after six months on the lam. Conn was ultimately sentenced to 27 years in prison.
He is at a federal prison in New Jersey, currently scheduled to be released in November 2039.
Daugherty, the judge, pleaded guilty and was serving a four-year sentence when he died in prison. Bradley Adkins, a Pikeville psychologist, is serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of signing falsified evaluation forms for Conn.
Charlie Paul Andrus, who was a judge at the Huntington, W.Va. Social Security office with Daugherty, pleaded guilty to trying to help Conn discredit a whistleblower and was sentenced to six months in prison.
