Expert testimony by Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon key to workers’ comp win.

We successfully defended a claim petition on behalf of a well-known local hospital. The judge’s decision was based upon a full recovery opinion by a Board Certified orthopedic surgeon who was found credible, competent and persuasive given his credentials and understanding of the claimant’s extensive history, along with his review of post- and pre-injury records and diagnostic study films supporting no post-traumatic abnormalities. Based upon this strong medical expert testimony, the judge limited the claimant’s claim to a period of three months only, despite the claim for ongoing total disability, and did not expand the claimant’s nature of injury to include a herniated disc in the lumbar spine.

In addition to expert deposition testimony, surveillance was also submitted and accepted, which demonstrated the claimant’s activities contrary to any ongoing disability and, more importantly and just as significant, were extensive medical records demonstrating that the claimant downplayed her prior injuries and her complaints, completely inconsistent with the actual medical records. 

Further, the judge recognized the defense’s cross-examination of the claimant’s medical expert, particularly with respect to his credentials, analysis of the MRI and lack of identifying a herniated disc diagnosis in all of his medical records, yet testifying to same in an effort to support the claimant’s allegations of this description of injury.