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Legal Library

Personal Injury

• Questions for Your Doctor In Personal Injury Cases
• Traumatic Brain Injury: By The [Staggering] Numbers
• What is an Independent Medical Examination?
• Common Questions About the Legal Process
• The Wrongful Death Of A Child - Part Two

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Premises Liability: The Slip and Fall

• Cracked, Broken or Irregular Sidewalks Causing a Fall
• Dog Bites
• If You Have Been Bitten or Attacked by a Dog, Then You Need to Read This Article
• New Pennsylvania Superior Court Case on Dog Attack
• Lead Poisoning Threatens Pregnant Women

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Workers' Compensation

• New York Times article on Independent Medical Exams
• Response to Time Magazine Article: "Doctor's View: Can Health Coverage Cause Pain?"
• Specific Loss Benefits
• Reimbursement for Travel Expenes in Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Cases
• Flow of Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Claim Documents Prior To Litigation

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Vehicle and Automobile Accidents

• Reducing The Impact of A Whiplash Injury
• Car Accident Injuries: Neck Pain
• Multi-Truck Accident in Susquehanna County Results in Hospitalization
• Repeat Offender Facing DUI Charges After Accident Lands Passenger in Hospital
• Driver Strikes Mother and Daughter in School Crossing Zone

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Newsletters

• Spring 2009 Newsletter
• 2008, 06 Newsletter
• 2008, 03 Newsletter
• 2007, 09 Newsletter
• 2007, 11 Newsletter

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General

• Why Doesn't My Treating Physician's Opinion Matter?
• Do You Really Need the Money Now?
• Sorting Through The Marketing Maze: Finding The Right Personal Injury Attorney For You
• 2009 Medical Record Fee Schedule
• Knee Injury Litigation

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Personal Injury

6/11/2008
James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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Interactive Guide to Your Body
Here is an interesting Interactive Guide to Your Body from the New York times.
What caught my eye is the section on back pain.  You can find it here.  Probably the most common injury that we face in our personal injury and workers' compensation cases involve the spine.  Therefore, I'm always reading articles and journals on the most updated treatments and studies on the spine and traumatic back spinal injuries in particular.  The following passage really stood out for me.
The effectiveness of virtually every pharmaceutical or surgical remedy, however, has been questioned. And for all the money sufferers spend on doctor visits, hospital stays, procedures and drugs, backs are not improving. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that spending on back treatments jumped 65 percent to nearly $86 billion from 1997 to 2005, after adjusting for inflation. But during the same period, the proportion of people with reduced function because of spine problems increased, even after controlling for an aging population.
The exact cause of back pain is never found in 85 percent of patients, said Dr. Dennis C. Turk, professor of anesthesiology and pain research at the University of Washington and a past president of the American Pain Society. Even magnetic resonance imaging seldom sheds light; in many studies the scans have picked up spinal abnormalities in many people who have never reported back pain.
While the quest for a safe and effective pain pill continues, Americans undergo more than 300,000 spinal fusion surgeries a year, at an average cost of $59,000 each, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Almost as many undergo laminectomies or diskectomies to remove damaged vertebrae and disks.
For some, back surgery can be life-changing, eliminating pain and disability. But for others, it can have serious consequences. One study found that 11.6 percent of patients in the 78 spinal surgeries that were analyzed developed infections and other complications.
Here's an article from the National Institute of Health on alternative remedies for low back pain (LBP).
Here's an article from Back.com demonstrating, with pictures, exercises and stretching maneuvers that will help with back pain as well as prevent it.
Last, here's an article from a orthopedic surgeon answering questions about his own experience with back pain and how he's dealt with it over the years without surgery.  The following caught my eye from the interview:
Q. What kind of patients find their way to a specialist like you?
A. Usually they're at the end of a long road. They may have gone to their local primary care doctor, a physical therapist, another surgeon, various specialists. They may have had surgery, and it hasn't worked. We, the health care system, make it complicated. When your back hurts, it's bad. It can take your breath away and make you totally immobile, and it's scary. In many cases, these are people who've been so taken aback by it. They are seriously looking for help, and they don't want to experience the pain again. And that's understandable, having had the problem myself.
Usually, 95 to 98 percent of the time, it will get better by itself without any intervention. But that's not the American way. We've built an incredible medical structure. People think, "I shouldn't have to suffer for one day -- there must be a pill or surgery that can help me." I agree with how they feel, but certainly there's over a 90 percent chance most people will get better with no intervention. That's an important message. People will say, "Well, what am I supposed to do when I can't walk or go to work?" Well, having surgery is going to keep you out of work. For the common cold, do you expect to see a doctor every time or expect surgery to make you better? Most people know it will take a week to 10 days to feel better.
Why don't we have that same approach to backaches? Stay active. Take aspirin or other over-the-counter drugs.
I try to tell my clients that spine surgery should be the last option.  I would say about half of my clients have truly successful outcome from spine surgery.  Another quarter have a good outcome but still suffer symptoms.  The last quarter have no change in their symptoms or become worse.

Labels: back injury fusion surgery spine injury work injury workers' compensation

Premises Liability: The Slip and Fall

6/9/2008
James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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Worker recovers for fall caused by 'junk brick'
An ironworker whose ankle was crushed by a powerlift after he fell on uneven ground at a brickyard work site recovered $810,315. Roger K. Hepner blamed his fall on "junk brick," which is old, culled brick that's used to cover the ground at a construction site. The plaintiff's construction expert argued that junk brick created an unsafe condition. It's standard for a work site to have gravel because junk brick causes an uneven surface. Defense counsel argued that once Hepner fell, the operator of the lift should have been carefully watching the area and not have run over the Hepner's foot.
Hepner v. Global Glay
To get the full report on this case, go to VerdictSearch.com.


Labels: construction site accident expert testimony OSHA premise liability slip and fall work injury workers' compensation

Vehicle and Automobile Accidents

6/6/2008
James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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New case law on obtaining UIM from your employer for a work related auto accident.
On June 4, in Heller v. Pennsylvania League of Cities, the Commonwealth Court reversed the trial court's decision that it is a violation of public policy to exclude anyone eligible for workers' compensation benefits from also recovering underinsured motorist benefits. In Heller, the injured victim was in the course and scope of his employment in his employer’s vehicle when a car accident occurred. The injured worker recovered the third party coverage and then sought UIM coverage on his employer’s policy. There was an exclusion in the UIM provision of the employer's policy and instead of just ruling that the exclusion was not valid under the MVFRL, the trial court found that the exclusion violated public policy. The Commonwealth Court in this 2-1 decision holds that the exclusion does not violate public policy and reverses

Labels: automobile accident automobile insurance case law Underinsurance workers' compensation

Workers' Compensation

4/4/2009
James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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New York Times article on biased "Independant" Medical Examiners
Recently, The New York Times began putting together a series of articles on the New York State workers’ compensation system.  One of the articles printed in the April 1, 2009, edition was entitled “a world of hurt: exams of injured workers fuel mutual mistrust.”  The article was written by N.R. Kleinfield and can be seen here. 

The whole gist of the series is the decline and unfairness of the New York workers’ compensation system.  However, this article specifically focuses on the doctors who are used by the insurance companies as so called “independent” medical examiners.  As this article proves, these examiners are nothing at all close to being "independent.”  As one of the doctors indicated in the article, in order to be certified as an examiner in workers’ compensation cases, “basically, if you haven’t murdered anyone and you have a medical license, you get certified.”

Another aspect of the article talks about the significant disparity between the opinions of the treating physicians and the opinions of these insurance doctors or more commonly referred to as IMEs. 

Although this article dealt specifically with the New York State workers’ compensation system, it has been my experience that these insurance company doctors permeate throughout the country.  Actually, here at Carroll & Carroll, P.C., we like to refer to them as Defense Medical Examiners or DMEs. 

Insurance adjusters know which doctors are favorable to them and which doctors are not.  They know it based upon their own experience.  Therefore, the doctors who will write an opinion that is favorable to the insurance company more often than the claimant will get more business.
I know some doctors who have their own private practice and actually see patients but also make over a million dollars a year merely doing insurance company work.  They obviously know who pays the bills.


Labels: Carroll & Carroll Defense medical examiner dme IME independent medical examiner new york state workers' compensation new york times P.C. work injury workers' compensation

General

5/29/2008
James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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New post on the Pa Work Injury Law Blog
It's an editorial from the New York Times entitled "The Working Wounded."  A good read.  See it here.

Labels: OSHA work injury workers' compensation

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