Defense Win
In a hard-fought defense win, Paige Kolbrick of Smith Freed Eberhard P.C. convinced the Court to grant summary judgment and dismiss a UIM case stemming from a 2007 motor vehicle collision and to convince the Court to affirm he dismissal on the plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration. After the plaintiff reached a settlement with the underlying tortfeasor in 2010, she brought a UIM claim in 2016 and filed the UIM action in 2020. She claimed that she was not fully compensated in the original settlement and that she was continuing to experience debilitating cognitive issues, severe neck and joint pain, and permanent disability. The tortfeasor had previously admitted liability, so only damages and causation were at issue.
Throughout the course of discovery, the plaintiff refused to produce her full medical records or sign a release, claiming that her records contained work product and privileged communications. Defense counsel filed a motion to compel medical records and requested the court appoint a discovery master to screen the records for privileged information and work product, which the court granted. The parties began working with the discovery master, and due to the plaintiff’s delays, defense counsel finally obtained all of the plaintiff’s medical records two years later.
Throughout the life of the case, the plaintiff sent counsel several pages of correspondence almost weekly, including lengthy descriptions of her alleged ongoing symptoms and disabling health conditions. As the discovery cutoff approached, the plaintiff failed to disclose any experts or provide any expert opinions regarding causation or medical damages. Defense counsel had retained a medical expert who opined that none of plaintiff’s current conditions were related in any way to the underlying MVA. The expert also found that she suffered from a serious pre-existing back/neck injury and severe degenerative changes, as well as psychosomatic disorder, severely untreated hypothyroidism, untreated pre-diabetes, and obesity, which all contributed to and explained her continuing complaints of pain. After the discovery deadline passed, defense counsel filed a motion for summary judgment on medical causation on the grounds that the plaintiff could not produce any admissible evidence to refute summary judgment on medical causation. The plaintiff filed a motion to continue trial to allow additional time for discovery even though the underlying accident occurred in 2007, and the court denied the motion to continue trial and granted the motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case entirely. The plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court denied, upholding the dismissal with prejudice. After several years of litigation, the client was very happy to have the case dismissed on summary judgment.
Throughout the course of discovery, the plaintiff refused to produce her full medical records or sign a release, claiming that her records contained work product and privileged communications. Defense counsel filed a motion to compel medical records and requested the court appoint a discovery master to screen the records for privileged information and work product, which the court granted. The parties began working with the discovery master, and due to the plaintiff’s delays, defense counsel finally obtained all of the plaintiff’s medical records two years later.
Throughout the life of the case, the plaintiff sent counsel several pages of correspondence almost weekly, including lengthy descriptions of her alleged ongoing symptoms and disabling health conditions. As the discovery cutoff approached, the plaintiff failed to disclose any experts or provide any expert opinions regarding causation or medical damages. Defense counsel had retained a medical expert who opined that none of plaintiff’s current conditions were related in any way to the underlying MVA. The expert also found that she suffered from a serious pre-existing back/neck injury and severe degenerative changes, as well as psychosomatic disorder, severely untreated hypothyroidism, untreated pre-diabetes, and obesity, which all contributed to and explained her continuing complaints of pain. After the discovery deadline passed, defense counsel filed a motion for summary judgment on medical causation on the grounds that the plaintiff could not produce any admissible evidence to refute summary judgment on medical causation. The plaintiff filed a motion to continue trial to allow additional time for discovery even though the underlying accident occurred in 2007, and the court denied the motion to continue trial and granted the motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case entirely. The plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court denied, upholding the dismissal with prejudice. After several years of litigation, the client was very happy to have the case dismissed on summary judgment.