Nathan Zilak and Dale Parker recently finished a three day UIM trial with admitted liability in a collision involving minor damage to the Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s vehicles.
The 34 year old Plaintiff claimed a lumbar herniation at L4-5 and incurred over $80,000 in chiropractic care and pain management bills including radio frequency ablations and facet injections. The pain management doctor predicted $460,000 for future pain management care. Plaintiff’s surgeon recommended a lumbar fusion at a cost of $125,000. The defense medical expert found a new lumbar herniation after the accident which was not present on the pre-accident films and related treatment to the accident.
Plaintiff requested a verdict over $790,000. The defense team argued that the medical bills were overstated and were able to get the Plaintiff’s surgeon to admit that he accepted 15-30% in full payment on his charges. They then applied this reduction in arguing the reasonableness of the claimed medical care.
The jury returned a verdict less than 15% of the requested amount.
