Ragsdale Liggett Attorney Wins Case for Disabled Man, NC Court of Appeals

Limits State's Power

In a case against the NC Department of Health and Human Services, Judge rules for Disabled Man.
This ruling has significant implications. The Court's decision will protect North Carolinians from
bureaucratic overreaching.

Raleigh, NC, January 31, 2011 --(PR.com)-- The law firm of Ragsdale Liggett PLLC announces a
significant win for petitioner Michael Jonathan McCrann, Jr., represented by Attorney James L. Conner
II, in a case against the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS had
denied Jonathan critically needed habilitation services based upon a staff re-write of one of the State's
mental health plans, called the CAP Waiver. DHHS had provided these services for years and admitted in
the litigation that Jonathan still needed them, generally qualified for them, and that cost was not an issue.
The services were denied on a technical interpretation of one of the rewritten paragraphs in the Waiver.
On January 18, 2011, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of McCrann and his family on
every point without dissent. In addition to ruling against DHHS on the law, the Court ordered that DHHS
reimburse the McCranns for their out-of-pocket costs during the litigation.

The verdict is the culmination of a hard fought battle that began in 2006. After the DHHS informed the
McCranns that the needed services would no longer be covered by the State's Medicaid-funded CAP
program, (Community Alternatives Program for Persons with Mental Retardation and Other
Developmental Disabilities), the McCranns filed a petition for a hearing at the Office of Administrative
Hearings. Attorney Jim Conner won at trial when the Administrative Law Judge held in January 2008 that
DHHS' denial of benefits was “arbitrary and capricious and erroneous as a matter of law.” In 2009 Wake
County Superior Court Senior Judge Donald Stephens upheld the ruling, adopting the ALJ's findings
completely. When the State doggedly pursued the matter, Mr. Conner and his clients soundly defeated
DHHS's last appeal as of right.

This ruling has significant implications. “The Court ruled correctly on what I believe is an incredibly
important point of law,” said Jim Conner. “State employees cannot make law by simply writing stuff
down and getting some other bureaucrat in the federal Medicaid system to sign off on it. Technically, the
Court held that the MR/DD/SAS Medicaid Waiver, written by a committee of State employees and
approved by a federal official, is not law and was not enforceable against our client. To do so, they had to
carefully and correctly limit the scope of an apparently contrary Supreme Court decision. This decision
will fundamentally shake up the DHHS approach. They attempted to impose requirements and restrictions
on citizens through waivers, memoranda, and other staff-generated documents that had not been through
the legislature or the APA process for promulgating rules. The Court agreed that is wrong. The Court's
decision will protect North Carolinians from bureaucratic overreaching.”

Conner says the case is special because of the McCranns. Jonathan McCrann has a daunting mix of
serious mental and physical afflictions, and his family has stood by him, loved him, and cared for him for
all of his 24 years. Mike McCrann, a lawyer and Jonathan's father, says “we're doing this for all the truck
drivers and waitresses out there who have disabled kids and who can't afford to fight back when the State

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pushes them around.”

Ragsdale Liggett attorneys, Melissa Brumback, Ashley Campbell and Mary Hulett; paralegal Amy Cutler
and legal assistant Lois Dills also did important work on this matter.

Related link: www.rl-law.com

About James L. Conner II, Of Counsel:

Jim Conner represents clients in environmental law, health care law, administrative law and commercial
litigation using his extensive knowledge and background in litigation as well as legislative and regulatory
matters. Jim is a former Administrative Law Judge, and uses that experience, his dispute resolution
training and experience, and his years of litigation to fight for clients in courts at every level, and to very
effectively guide parties through mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes. He is
admitted to practice in the NC Supreme Court, Federal District Courts and the US Court of Appeals
Fourth Circuit. Jim is a certified mediator for all NC courts as well as the US District Courts for the
Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina. He was recently inducted into the North Carolina
Academy of Superior Court Mediators. www.ncmediators.org/jim-conner

Judge Conner received his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Law after earning a bachelor's degree cum laude in botany from Duke University. A member of
the NC Bar Association, Jim is serving his third term as a council member for the Environmental and
Natural Resources Law Section of the NC Bar Association. Jim is a frequent speaker at NC Bar
Association CLEs and other professional events.

About Ragsdale Liggett PLLC:

The law firm of Ragsdale Liggett, PLLC, is comprised of lawyers with extensive legal expertise across a
broad range of practice areas. Known for innovations in corporate law, Ragsdale Liggett is equipped to
handle all of a business' legal needs, including formation, day-to-day business counseling, acquisition,
disposition, merger and dissolution of companies ranging in sizes. The diverse real estate group handles a
wide variety of transactions, from residential purchases and sales to all aspects of commercial real estate
development, including entity formation, final project completion, complex public and private bond
financing transactions, and the privatization of university student housing. Since its formation in 1972,
the firm has an extraordinary reputation in civil litigation and Appellate practice enjoying significant
courtroom successes ranging from local state courts to the United States Supreme Court in areas with
far-reaching implications, such as insurance/reinsurance coverage disputes, shareholder derivative
actions, ERISA disputes, professional negligence defense, accountant liability actions, catastrophic
personal injury defense and complex construction disputes. In addition to its equine law, environmental
law and mediation practices, the firm has a lobbying and government relations group comprised of
professionals who represent interests before the NC General Assembly, the executive branch and various
state agencies. 919/787-5200; www.rl-law.com.

Contact Information:
James L. Conner II, Of Counsel, Ragsdale Liggett PLLC

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919/787-5200; 919/749-9943; jconner@rl-law.com
Mike McCrann 910-944-7638

###

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Contact Information:
Ragsdale Liggett PLLC
Rose Radford
919-787-5200
rradford@rl-law.com
www.rl-law.com
Jim Conner, 919-2218; 919-749-9943

Online Version of Press Release:

You can read the online version of this press release at: http://www.pr.com/press-release/292596

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