IRC Blog
The Role of the Rehabilitation Doctor in a Personal Injury Case
From a healthcare standpoint, personal injury cases can involve a wide array of professional disciplines ranging from medical, chiropractic, physical therapy, speech therapy, and psychology to name a few. The Role of the Rehabilitation Doctor in a Personal Injury Case...
What level of certainty is required of your medical malpractice expert?
What level of certainty is required of your medical malpractice expert? Experts on the stand define the certainty of their opinion in two similar but vastly different terms. These terms are “Possibly related” and “Probably related”. In context, they’re voiced about...
This important damages’ expert can make or break your case! Evolution of a life care planner.
Determining future medical care for your client has traditionally been calculated by either a certified life care planner or by the law firm itself. In the past, a life care planner was hired toward the end of the case’s lifecycle as a last-ditch effort to avoid trial.
What do you get when you combine a certified life care planner with a doctor that has 20 years of experience treating personal injury patients?
The answer to this question is simple. You get the only life care planner you can trust. When someone suffers an impairment they may be facing both a physical and functional abnormality, loss, or disfigurement, as well as the potential for psychological damage from...
A medical diagnosis is only as good as the functional assessment that backs it up
As you can see, while it is important to have a medical diagnosis, the diagnosis itself is only as powerful and objectively reliable as the functional assessment that backs it up. In personal injury, the hardest aspect to prove to an insurance adjuster or jury member is how the person’s accident and subsequent diagnosis affect their daily life.
The #1 Reason A Life Care Planner Can Make or Break Your Case!
Attorneys are discovering that hiring a life care planner at the beginning of the case can help provide valuable insights throughout all phases to help get the case settled in an acceptable and swift manner.
Is Your Client Faking Their Injuries?
Wondering if your client is faking their injuries is probably one of the most daunting and upsetting thoughts that an attorney can have after their client retains them.
Should the MD or PT give return to work recommendations?
In a lot of injury cases there can be confusion about whether or not a medical physician or a doctor of physical therapy should be giving the green light for a patient to return to work full time, part time, or with / without restrictions.
Cases Are Won or Lost By the Expert’s Ability to Defend their Report
When a patient suffers an injury due to a provider’s negligence, they face important decisions regarding their next steps. They can either file a complaint with the clinic and continue treatment or, if the injuries are severe, pursue a malpractice lawsuit. If opting for legal action, it’s crucial to select the right attorney and expert.
Attorneys must carefully choose experts, considering their qualifications, past performance, and whether they meet the admissibility standards set by the Frye Test, Daubert Decision, Rule 702, and Rule 26. Failure to meet these criteria could result in the expert’s testimony being excluded from the trial.
Moreover, an expert’s ability to testify effectively is as important as their report. An expert must clearly explain their methodology and findings to the jury in an understandable way. If they fail to do this, their testimony may be discredited, which could be detrimental to the case.
With over two decades of experience in testifying as both a treating doctor and expert in malpractice and personal injury cases, I am dedicated to providing clear and qualified reports to educate the jury effectively.
Helping Your Client Grasp the Essential Need for a Functional Capacity Evaluation
As clients progress through their personal injury cases, they often experience increased anxiety and fatigue due to the lengthy and complex nature of their treatments. This can lead to frustration, especially when faced with additional requirements like a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE).
To help clients understand the necessity of the FCE, explain that it serves as a comprehensive assessment that ties together their medical treatments by documenting how their injuries impact their ability to perform work-related tasks, daily activities, and leisure activities. This evaluation is crucial for demonstrating the full extent of their impairments to the insurance company, highlighting how these issues affect their daily lives beyond what medical treatments alone can show.
Clarify that while medical treatments aim to improve their condition, the FCE provides a concrete measure of their functional limitations, which is essential for determining their overall damages and impairment rating. Additionally, inform clients about the details of the FCE, such as its duration (approximately 4 hours) and the need to wear comfortable clothing for the physical tasks involved, to ensure they are well-prepared and understand the purpose of this step in their case.
Functional Capacity Evaluations confirm the diagnosis and quantify injury severity
Confidence in the injuries sustained in the client’s accident must come from a correct diagnosis as well as how that diagnosis affects the injureds’ life. The only trial-proven test to confirm the diagnosis and prove the impact is the FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY EVALUATION (FCE). During this 4-hour evaluation, the client’s impairments and disabilities are discovered which confirms not only the diagnosis itself but it also quantifies the severity of the diagnosis.
Expert Reports are only as VALID as the expert writing them
When an injured person seeks legal representation after a car accident, they typically go through a screening process to find the right attorney. This process may involve asking for referrals from friends or family, researching online, or choosing based on advertising.
Similarly, attorneys looking to hire an expert witness, such as a life care planner, also use a screening process. They might seek recommendations from colleagues, search online, or hire based on advertising presence to find the best fit for their case.
Be sure to check out Dr. Poppie’s
educational videos to learn more!
