Oral arguments in a health care case ended abruptly Wednesday when Los Angeles lawyer Robert Olson collapsed to the floor during a brutal barrage of unfriendly questioning.
First District Court of Appeal Justices Carol Corrigan and Stuart Pollak had verbally hammered Olson for several minutes when he apparently fainted. His legs buckled and he fell backward, hitting his head hard on the floor.
The California Highway Patrol officers who provide courtroom security revived an obviously dazed Olson and took him by ambulance to St. Francis Memorial Hospital. An emergency room nurse later said he underwent tests and that there was no evidence of a stroke or other heart problems. He was later released.
Olson, a partner at Los Angeles' Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, was representing Health Net of California Inc., which had been sued for breach of contract by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association after refusing to renew health care coverage in 2003, six years after the policies were issued.
Details here from The Recorder via Law.com.