Reasoning that the enforcement of a settlement agreement is a state-court matter except in rare instances, a federal judge has ruled that the court lacks the jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement between Harrisburg-based firm Schutjer Bogar & Bartel, its former client and one of its former attorneys.
The parties settled last November, with no money changing hands, after nearly a year-and-a-half of litigation in which Schutjer Bogar, a firm that handles Medicaid eligibility and reimbursement claims for nursing home providers, alleged its former client, Kentucky-based long-term care center operator Kindred Nursing Centers East, had ceased paying its legal bills and ended its relationship with the firm following the departure of attorney Kelly Kjersgaard Hayes.
