Fieger claimed he was disabled in a $16M lawsuit, then continued to argue cases in court

The doctor's prognosis was dire, and Geoffrey Fieger claimed he knew it.

"He should never be exposed to significant emotional stress," Dr. Michele DeGregorio wrote on Dec. 4, 2020, in an attending physician's statement.

"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.

There was no sign here at home that the bombastic 72-year-old barrister was following doctor's orders and limiting his duties to paperwork, or working as what he described as an "office lawyer," as he told the insurance underwriters he would. Fieger held news conferences on the Oxford High School massacre and Detroit police shootings. He appeared on CNN and Fox News. And it's still hard to watch local TV for very long without seeing an ad for his law firm. It wasn't until last month, when his family and law firm disclosed that Fieger had suffered a stroke after undergoing "an elective procedure to address a minor heart arrhythmia," that we learned Fieger had any health issues.

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.

Danger of 'sudden death'

On March 2, 2019, Fieger declared on insurance paperwork that he was a trial lawyer who made $19.5 million the year before, stood 6-foot-2, weighed 235 pounds and was "in good health and free from mental or physical impairment, abnormality injury or disease." The two-year premium for his policy was $285,018.

Fifteen months later, on June 17, 2020, a cardiologist informed Fieger his "heart was dangerously enlarged." He underwent a second heart check four months later and said the doctor insisted he undergo an angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked arteries. Fieger told the insurance company's claims adjuster that the doctor was concerned "because of the dangers that he described as 'sudden death.' "

I don't know about you, but that's the kind of warning I take seriously.

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It appears Fieger did, too, because on Sept. 25, 2020, he underwent "detailed cardiac testing and examination." DeGregorio, an interventional cardiologist, diagnosed Fieger with heart disease.

"He should avoid moderate and strenuous exercise," DeGregorio wrote on an attending physician's report submitted as part of Fieger's insurance claim. Under the question "When do you expect the patient to be able to return to work," DeGregorio wrote: "Never as a trial lawyer."

The diagnosis must have been devastating for Fieger, who rose to national prominence in 1990 when he defended Dr. Jack Kevorkian against a charge of first-degree murder after the pathologist helped a chronically-ill woman end her life. I still remember watching a brash young Fieger say during a televised news conference that the only thing then-Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson was missing was a clown nose. Then he pulled out a red ball and stuck it on a photo of Thompson. Fieger has done pretty well since then. He says he has won more than 165 jury verdicts of at least $1 million.

DeGregorio's diagnosis seemed to put an end to Fieger's days as a trial attorney, a role in which he charmed juries and antagonized opposing counsel for more than 40 years. On Nov. 18, 2020, Fieger filed a disability claim with his insurance underwriter. He would later write in a legal filing that he provided them with "incontrovertible medical evidence of his serious heart condition."

On Dec. 7, 2020, Fieger wrote on an insurance form asking how his medical condition had affected his ability to work: "Physician recommends I no longer engage in any strenuous activity." He also wrote that he last worked as a trial attorney in March 2020 and, in response to a question on the form asking when he expected to return to work, he wrote: "N/A Incurable."

Fieger also wrote that he had been working 80 hours a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and "cannot, upon doctors orders, try cases."

Still, five months later, Fieger was in court in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Public records show that on April 1, 2021, Fieger participated in a pretrial conference as part of a team representing a family on a medical malpractice case.

I left a voicemail and sent emails to Fieger, his assistants and a public relations executive who has been representing Fieger and his firm since his stroke, but no one responded to discuss the disconnect between Fieger's declarations that his days as a trial attorney were over and what appears to be business as usual.

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A month after Fieger's trip to Kenosha, he filled out more insurance forms describing himself as an "office lawyer," asserting that he had cut his hours down to 40 to 50 a week and was dividing his time evenly between "managing law office" and "pre-trial case work-up"

"I am unable to be a trial lawyer and try cases," he wrote on May 20, 2021. "I can now be an office lawyer. Doctors do not prelude this non-stressful work."

"As a trial lawyer, I worked throughout the U.S. and traveled extensively," he added. "Not now."

On Aug. 2, 2021, Fieger expressed frustration that insurance underwriters were requesting billing records.

"After March of 2020, all trials ceased. I told you that," he wrote. "Certainly, cases have been settled since March 2020, but sadly at a drastically discounted amount because there is no threat of me as a 'trial lawyer.' "

Three weeks later, on Aug. 26, 2021, Fieger sued insurance underwriters at Lloyd's of London seeking a $16 million disability payout.

On Sept. 27, 2021, the insurance underwriters sent Fieger a letter in which they "invoked the record examination provision of the policy as part of their ongoing efforts to determine whether (Fieger) had, in fact, ceased performing his trial lawyer duties per his doctor's recommendation — an essential requirement of the PTD coverage."

PTD is insurance jargon for "permanent total disability." In Fieger's case, that translates to not being able to argue a case in court.

What happens in Newark

The wheels of justice can move slowly, but Fieger's legal team wasn't wasting any time.

Less than two months after filing his lawsuit against Lloyd's of London, Fieger won a default judgment because lawyers for Lloyd's of London failed to respond to his lawsuit.

It was a short-lived victory.

Lawyers for the insurance underwriters told the judge Fieger failed to notify them about the lawsuit. They challenged the assertion of Fieger's legal team that a records clerk named "Alfonzo Zeebler," who stood between 5-foot-9 and 6-foot tall and weighed between 181 and 200 pounds, really received the legal paperwork. They said their records clerk is named "Alphonzo Ziegler," stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 320 pounds. Ziegler also swore that he never received the paperwork.

The insurance underwriters' lawyers also claimed that Fieger's legal team sent their notice of default to the wrong address. By the time the letter, sent to 750 Fifth Ave., finally caught up to them at 750 Seventh Ave., the judge had already granted Fieger's motion for default. The insurance underwriters' lawyers persuaded the judge to vacate the default judgment, but they had plenty more to say.

For starters, they accused Fieger of trying to rush the lawsuit through the court "to cut short a continuing investigation of (Fieger's) disability claim and leverage an immediate payment of benefits."

"Among the issues that must be determined … are whether (Fieger) continues to engage in 'trial attorney' duties."

The underwriters' lawyers also alleged that Fieger's heart problems date to 1999 and that he failed to disclose them, as required, and failed to disclose all the medications he was taking. Fieger countered that he saw a doctor for a minor heart flutter and did not disclose medications he took for preventive purposes.

The underwriters' lawyers even accused Fieger of writing a Feb. 18, 2010, letter in which Fieger's doctor gushed about his "extraordinary health."

"He maintains as good health as is possible in a man fifty-nine-years-old," the letter said. "He appears to be ten to fifteen years younger."

Fieger denied writing the letter, which he said his doctor wrote by hand and merely asked Fieger's office to type up for him.

Two particular claims the underwriters made that leaped out at me in the wake of Fieger's March medical procedure — which his wife described as an "elective procedure to address a minor heart arrhythmia" — are that Fieger went to the hospital in 2017 for a "cardiac arrhythmia" and in 2018 underwent "another cardioversion procedure by Dr. DeGregorio for recurrent atrial fibrillation and/or atrial flutter to restore normal sinus rhythm." Fieger's lawyers said he merely went to the doctor "because of a minor and temporary atrial flutter that was likely caused by a reaction to an injectable anti-cholesterol shot that Fieger had taken as part of his health regimen."

Ultimately, the underwriters' lawyers asked the judge to void Fieger's policy. In return, they said they would refund what Fieger paid for the policy.

On Jan. 19, 2022, Fieger's lawyers responded that the underwriters were aware of Fieger's medical condition and that "the prospect of continuing to collect enormous premiums from Fieger was a substantial factor in underwriters' decision to continue selling policies to Fieger."

While the lawyers jousted, Fieger prepared for a date he had in two weeks at the kind of place his doctors said could kill him.

A date with St. Lucie

Past the palm trees and beyond the polished stone and glass facade of the St. Lucie County Courthouse in Florida, Fieger stood before a jury on Feb. 2, 2022, and delivered the opening statement in the case of a young girl who, he said, suffered permanent brain damage because medical workers failed to provide proper treatment when she was born.

If Fieger was worried about his doctor's warning that he avoid "significant emotional stress," it didn't show as he laid out his case, according to a transcript of the trial I reviewed.

Fieger became so impassioned while blaming hospital workers for taking too long to help a newborn start breathing that the hospital's lawyer was moved to interrupt him.

"Objection, your honor," the lawyer said. "He's screaming."

Fieger made his mea culpa even before the judge could sustain the opposing counsel's objection.

"I'm just — I apologize," Fieger said. "I just get a little enthusiastic. Hundred percent correct. I'm sorry, counsel."

Later, the judge cautioned Fieger against making comments that have "nothing to do with anything other than trying to inflame the jury inappropriately."

Fieger and the hospital's lawyer wrestled in court over the next three weeks.

Fieger began his closing argument by saying he wished he had been "more kind" to opposing counsel and had "listened more closely" to the judge. But, before long, the judge was again cautioning him to stop making inflammatory statements.

"Policy after policy was violated," Fieger argued, his fury apparently building. "They provided no objective written explanation for what they had done as the policy requires."

"Objection," the hospital's lawyer said. "He's yelling."

"Please," the judge told Fieger, "I know you're excited, but …"

Fieger, undeterred, continued.

Before launching into his own closing argument, the hospital's lawyer requested a mistrial. The judge denied the motion.

The jury awarded Fieger's client $158,000.

Fieger fared better a month later in Johnson County, Iowa. On March 21, 2022, a jury awarded $97.4 million to a boy whose brain was severely damaged at birth. Local media reports said Fieger argued the case in court and described him as "the plaintiffs' lead courtroom lawyer." The plaintiffs' legal team issued a news release hailing Fieger, two Chicago lawyers and a Des Moines lawyer for winning "the largest malpractice verdict in Iowa state history."

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Fieger's claim that his heart condition rendered him unable to do battle in a courtroom headed to mediation. A lawyer for the insurance underwriters said both sides were committed to resolving the case without a trial. On Jan. 18, Fieger offered to take $13.3 million to settle the case.

Court records do not say what happened with that offer.

On March 1, Fieger underwent what his wife, Keenie, described as "an elective and standard procedure to deal with a minor heart arrhythmia. Following the procedure, it was determined that Geoffrey had suffered a stroke."

Six days later, Fieger's disability lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. This kind of resolution generally means that both sides reached a settlement. But because Fieger's stroke did not become public until March 22, it's not clear what impact it may have had on his lawsuit — or even whether the insurance underwriters knew about it before the case concluded.

Fieger's longtime legal partner James Harrington issued a statement on March 22 that said Fieger was "awake, resting comfortably, and actively engaging in rehabilitation."

With Camp Fieger declining to respond to my questions, we're left wondering whether Fieger didn't take his doctors' warnings as seriously as he claimed to, or whether the lure of the courtroom was too great to resist.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this complex and convoluted yarn is that it ends with Fieger in a state many of us never expected: Silent.

M.L. Elrick is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and host of the ML's Soul of Detroit podcast. Contact him at mlelrick@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter at @elrick, Facebook at ML Elrick and Instagram at ml_elrick. Support investigative reporting and use this link to invite a friend to become a subscriber. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fieger claimed disability in lawsuit, got heart diagnosis pre-stroke