On Wednesday March 12th, The Arizona Daily Star reported how Susan Martin, a founding partner in the firm Martin & Bonnett, was able to secure payment of a $6.5 million settlement on behalf of about 300 former employees of Thomas-Davis Medical Centers. In a case that took over ten years to complete, the former doctors and nurses of doctors group are set to receive checks ranging from $500 to $263,000.

In the case, Susan Martin represented the Doctors Union against the now defunct bankrupt parent company, FPA Medical Management.

In 1997 the Tucson based doctors group made the unusual decision to join a union to fight their employer on increased workloads and cuts in pay and malpractice insurance agreements. With the backing of their union, the doctors and their staff won an unfair-labor-practices case in federal district court.

Unfortunately that win was just the start of the battle, as the parent company soon declared bankruptcy (Right after the executives secretly agreed to give themselves over $3.5 million in pay hikes and bonuses) and the vital community health organization closed its doors in 1998.
The National Labor Relations Board filed a claim for the money in the bankruptcy case on behalf of the doctors and staff members, but it sat unresolved — until now. In January, the bankruptcy court approved about $6.5 million in claims for back pay and malpractice insurance premiums.