Legal Services & Lawyers

Erin Houck-Toll concentrates her practice in the areas of federal and state taxation, as well as many aspects of business planning including health care law and mergers and acquisitions. She is admitted to practice in the State of Florida and before the United States Tax Court.

In law school, Erin served on the Environmental Law Journal and was granted a certificate in environmental law. She also served as a volunteer for the EarthJustice Defense Fund, doing independent legal research regarding environmental and land use matters.

Erin is currently a member of the Lee County Bar Association and the Tax Section of the Florida Bar. She is a graduate of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Leadership program and continues to volunteer for events.

President, CEO, Shareholder and Founding Partner of the firm in 1978, Richard D. Schuler has been actively involved in Civil Trial Litigation for 33 years. He has considerable experience in defending and prosecuting civil cases. For the past 28 years, his practice has been deveoted to representing injured plaintiffs in complex matters including medical malpractice, product liability, airplane crashes, construction accidents, automobile accidents and other types of personal injury claims.

Craig R. Lewis, Esq. joined the law firm of Jorge M. Abril, P.A. as an Associate in September 2007. Craig received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied Philosophy and Political Science; and his law degree from the Florida International University College of Law, where he was a member of the FIU Law Review's editorial board, helping to publish its inaugural edition. Prior to joining Jorge M. Abril, P.A. as an Associate, Craig worked at the firm as a Law Clerk. Craig focuses his practice on managed care disputes, building and construction litigation, and other collection related litigation.

Bar Admissions:
- Florida, 2007
- US District Court, Southern District of Florida, 2008
- US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida, 2008
- US District Court, Middle District of Florida, 2009

I represent people who : (1) are receiving calls or letters from debt collectors; (2) have inaccurate credit reports; and (3) are being sued by debt collectors.

My clients' credit reporting problems include other people's accounts appearing on my clients' reports (e.g., "mismerged" accounts), identity theft, and credit reports which are inaccurate after the client discharged their debts in bankruptcy. I also represent people whose credit reports have been accessed without a purpose permitted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Clients often hire me to represent them against debt collectors for many different violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other laws which govern debt collectors' conduct. My clients' problems have included :(1) false threats of arrest; (2) false threats to sue; (3) calls from the debt collector to employers, friends, and relatives; (4) misrepresentations concerning the debt;
(5) collection lawsuits filed after the statute of limitations had expired; (6) telephone messages and cell phone calls which were improper; and (7)collection letters which are needlessly confusing to consumers.

Many of my clients hired me to represent them against debt collectors and other creditors who failed to update their credit report, continued to call or write them and even sued them attempting to collect discharged debts.

I frequently represent consumers who are being sued by debt collectors.

I do not represent any businesses against consumers.

Finally, I represent relators in qui tam actions brought under the False Claims Act (often referred to as "whistleblower" cases). I represented Francine Mettevelis and Rhea Rowan in United States ex rel Francine Mettevelis & Rhea Rowan vs. Charter Behavioral Health System. Charter Hospital fraudulently admitted hundreds of elderly patients who typically suffered from conditions which could not be treated or which were already being adequately treated in their long term care facility by changing the diagnosis to a treatable condition in order to admit the patients to a "lock down" psychiatric unit in Kissimmee, Florida, and providing minimal if any psychiatric or therapeutic treatment. The exploitation of these seniors was even offensive because most of these patients were "total care" patients and received this high level of care in their nursing home while such care was inadequate while at Charter Hospital. This case along with a similar case arising in Oklahoma established the then-controversial proposition that health care providers claims for payment could be deemed "false claims" when the quality of care was inadequate. After four years of complex litigation, Charter agreed to pay the United States and the relators $ 4,578,000.

Mark concentrates his practice on representing health care providers, insurers and suppliers/manufacturers in regulatory matters before the government. He specializes in Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, state licensure and transactional compliance.

Mark has 24 years of experience in hospital, physician and managed care regulation and compliance. As a litigator, Mark has tried 33 healthcare cases in administrative, state and federal courts. His transactional practice includes operational and employment contracting.