Kathleen Roberts of SRTK’s San Jose office recently secured a big win, earning a “take nothing” in a case where the Applicant had an admitted knee injury and was given surgery. The QME came out with a 4% rating, and the Applicant Attorney didn’t like that, and decided to file a second date of injury which would have allowed him to get a new panel. In that new filing, he was able to get a chiropractic panel that would have given a much higher level of Permanent Disability. He did not report the second injury until more than three years after it occurred. Kathleen filed a DOR for MSC on the Statute of Limitations to try to keep the Applicant Attorney from getting that second QME opinion from the chiropractor. As the cases affected the same body part, Kathleen anticipated that they would have been consolidated at trial, and the chiropractor could have been followed by a pro-applicant judge. Kathleen obtained a “take nothing,” effectively barring the second alleged date of injury based upon the Statute of Limitations. This keeps the 4% PD in place and allowed the defendant to settle the case for a lot less, and now, as opposed to after the chiropractor eventually found MMI.
Great work, Kathleen!