DPT vs MD: Who Should Provide “Back to Work” Recommendations in Personal Injury Cases?
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The initial settlement offer received from the insurance adjuster is typically so low that you will need to take a second and third look at it to make sure you read it correctly. The insurance company will use every trick in the book and ludicrous claims defending their lack of consideration towards justifying a fair settlement offer. So why do insurance companies lowball? Because they can.
You may have the “perfect” personal injury case on paper proving no preexisting conditions, clear liability towards the offending party, received positive diagnostic imaging findings, and ensured your client diligently attended doctor-recommended treatment/therapies. And even after all of this, your client may still be experiencing ongoing pain and functional limitations. So, one must ask, “Why on earth would the insurance company still give a lowball settlement offer?” Again, because they can.
Inadvertently, what the insurance company is telling you is that even after you have dotted all of your “I’s” and crossed all of your “T’s”, you haven’t proven to them how all of your client’s injuries have affected their ability to provide for their family, care for themselves, or participate in the leisure activities they once did before their injuries.
I know it sounds weird, but by simply dotting all of your “I’s” and crossing all of your “T’s”, you are still only bringing a knife to a gunfight in hopes of obtaining a fair settlement from the insurance company. The fact of the matter is that the injured person is simply a number to the insurance company and the injured client’s claim is punched into a computer program that equates their injury to a set value of the claim.
So how do we combat these lowball settlement offers? You have to arm your client’s case with heavy ammunition to not only get the insurance company’s attention, but also fully educate them on why your client deserves an appropriate settlement. You must come out of the gate with both double-barrels-ablaze.
A proven way to do this is through a trial-tested functional abilities evaluation report that has over 4 decades of widespread usage in the personal injury and workers comp arena. This evaluation, better known as the Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), is the industry standard on how your client’s impairments and disabilities from their collision affect their livelihood; more specifically their ability to perform work-related activities, activities of daily living, and leisure activities.
Don’t get caught up in the unnecessary back-and-forth negotiations with the insurance company unless you have the answer to the question, “How does your client’s impairments affect their life?” Get an FCE to help educate the insurance company and aid in a fair and swift settlement.
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As a result, we offer free case evaluations to personal injury attorneys to help us better understand your needs and ensure the best possible outcomes for you and your client.
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The initial settlement offer received from the insurance adjuster is typically so low that you will need to take a second and third look at it to make sure you read it correctly. The insurance company will use every trick in the book and ludicrous claims defending their lack of consideration towards justifying a fair settlement offer. So why do insurance companies lowball? Because they can.
You may have the “perfect” personal injury case on paper proving no preexisting conditions, clear liability towards the offending party, received positive diagnostic imaging findings, and ensured your client diligently attended doctor-recommended treatment/therapies. And even after all of this, your client may still be experiencing ongoing pain and functional limitations. So, one must ask, “Why on earth would the insurance company still give a lowball settlement offer?” Again, because they can.
Inadvertently, what the insurance company is telling you is that even after you have dotted all of your “I’s” and crossed all of your “T’s”, you haven’t proven to them how all of your client’s injuries have affected their ability to provide for their family, care for themselves, or participate in the leisure activities they once did before their injuries.
I know it sounds weird, but by simply dotting all of your “I’s” and crossing all of your “T’s”, you are still only bringing a knife to a gunfight in hopes of obtaining a fair settlement from the insurance company. The fact of the matter is that the injured person is simply a number to the insurance company and the injured client’s claim is punched into a computer program that equates their injury to a set value of the claim.
So how do we combat these lowball settlement offers? You have to arm your client’s case with heavy ammunition to not only get the insurance company’s attention, but also fully educate them on why your client deserves an appropriate settlement. You must come out of the gate with both double-barrels-ablaze.
A proven way to do this is through a trial-tested functional abilities evaluation report that has over 4 decades of widespread usage in the personal injury and workers comp arena. This evaluation, better known as the Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), is the industry standard on how your client’s impairments and disabilities from their collision affect their livelihood; more specifically their ability to perform work-related activities, activities of daily living, and leisure activities.
Don’t get caught up in the unnecessary back-and-forth negotiations with the insurance company unless you have the answer to the question, “How does your client’s impairments affect their life?” Get an FCE to help educate the insurance company and aid in a fair and swift settlement.
Medical cost projections come in all shapes and sizes, some portraying valid content while others showcase invalid projections that do not stand up well to an insurance company or a jury.
The short answer is that each life care planner has their own methodology for how they construct the report. This leads us to the next question, “how do you know what differentiates a valid medical cost projection from an invalid one?”
Here are some tips to help you decipher possible red flags that may come up in the medical cost projections that come across your desk.
Medical cost projections are designed to follow the same methodology of a life care plan. The main difference is that medical cost projections are typically drafted for non-catastrophic injuries and life care plans service catastrophic injuries. Both reports should provide the reader with a clear and identifiable pathway to understand what their client’s future care needs are and the costs associated with them.
Remember, the more ambiguous the report, the more susceptible the report is to failing Daubert and Frye standards. Make sure you hire a credible and expert life care planner for your life care plans and medical costs projection needs. The expert must also understand impairments / disabilities and personal injury cases in order to fully understand the needs of the client.
Dr. Poppie has served the legal industry as a treating clinician, damages expert, and educator for over 20 years. He specializes in the evaluation and treatment of multi-trauma injuries related to motor vehicle collisions, standard of care and malpractice claims, and as a damages expert to help educate insurance companies and both plaintiff and defense counsel to provide a viable pathway for obtaining a fair settlement based on ethics, research, and evidence-based standards of care.
Dr. Poppie founded Injury Reporting Consultants to help attorneys and insurance companies resolve personal injury cases through medical analysis and reporting. Injury Reporting Consultants is a collaborative team of dedicated medical professionals using their knowledge to ensure fair outcomes for all parties in personal injury cases.
Recognized specialties include Motor Vehicle Collision, Life Care Planning, Medical Cost Projection, Functional Capacity Evaluation, Onsite Job Analysis, Functional Impairment and Disability, Workplace Injuries, Orthopedic Physical Therapy, Standards of Care, Current Best Practices, Physical Therapy Malpractice, Negligence, File and Medical Record Review, Improper Documentation, Expert Rebuttal Reports, and Expert Testimony.
If you have a client that you would like to discuss their need for an expert report, please contact me directly at 720-982-2000 or email me at: brad@injuryreportingconsultants.com
Learn more at Dr. Poppie’s educational videos!
Drafting a demand letter is an essential step in the process of resolving legal disputes. It serves as a formal request for settlement and outlines your clients’ grievances, the desired outcome, and the consequences if their demands are not met. However, before sending out a demand letter, it’s crucial to evaluate whether your case genuinely substantiates your settlement request.
The cornerstone of any demand letter are the legal claims you are asserting. These claims form the foundation for your settlement request and must be substantiated by credible evidence. There are two primary reasons why insurance companies often don’t take your demand settlement package seriously:
1. Inadequate documentation of diagnosable impairments:
Having reviewed hundreds of personal injury cases over the years, I’ve observed countless instances where ALL diagnosable impairments are not documented, inadequately documented, or completely disregarded and left unattended.
For instance, in many cases involving clients with multiple trauma injuries resulting from a motor vehicle collision, injuries are often prioritized based on their life-threatening or most severe pain-inducing nature which may cause overshadowing of less apparent impairments. Orthopedic impairments like broken bones, herniated discs, facet injuries, and ligament tears take precedence, while these less-obvious issues, such as short-term memory deficits, decreased attention span, dizziness, blurred vision, and tinnitus, often go undiagnosed and consequently remain undocumented. These signs are often symptoms of post-concussive and mild traumatic brain injuries and when left undocumented, can cause your client’s case to be severely undervalued.
2. Lack of Quantification of Diagnosed Impairments:
Orthopedic and cognitive impairments that are not quantified in terms of their severity and their impact on your clients’ lives are typically inputted into an insurance company’s system to generate a low-ball valuation based on the insurer’s subjective assessment of the impairments’ worth.
It is crucial to quantify how these impairments affect your clients’ daily lives, including their ability to provide for their family, perform activities of daily living, and engage in leisure activities. The most trial-tested, valid, and objectively reliable method to quantify your clients’ impairments is through a Functional Capacity Evaluation to assess physical abilities or a Cognitive Functional Capacity Evaluation to evaluate cognitive deficits and their effects on executive functioning skills, concentration, and attention span.
Before sending out a demand letter and making a settlement request, it is essential to evaluate whether your case comprehensively and quantitatively supports the impairments upon which you base your demands. By taking these two pivotal steps into account, you can significantly enhance the chances of achieving a successful resolution to your dispute.
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Dr. Brad Poppie has over 20 years of personal injury experience providing care as a treating doctor, coordinating rehabilitative case management, and expert trial testimony services. If you have a client that you would like to discuss their need for an expert report, please contact me directly at 720-982-2000 or email me at: brad@
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