I want you to meet one of my current clients, Constanza.<\/p>\n
What’s it like when an insurance company doesn\u2019t believe you, tries to take advantage of you or just makes life difficult when you\u2019re dealing with a serious injury or illness?<\/p>\n
For the last 10 years, Constanza worked for a large national company – working in a warehouse on the night shift, moving merchandise, unpacking deliveries, & stocking shelves. It was a physical job but paid well, & she was good at it.
\nA hard worker.<\/p>\n
Constanza was unloading boxes, standing on a pallet when a supervisor operating a pallet jack stacked high with boxes (a pallet jack is a motorized cart) ran into the pallet she was on. She got knocked over, her feet swept out from under her.<\/p>\n
Sounds pretty straightforward, right?<\/p>\n
The insurance company abruptly cut off all benefits. No real reason (they don\u2019t really have to give a reason in D.C.)<\/p>\n
When we finally got in front of the judge, I learned for the first time that the company had a video of the accident. It wasn\u2019t disclosed in pre-trial discovery and I had a big fight about it to keep it out of the case, because I had never seen it and didn\u2019t even know it existed until the hearing. I should have gotten it well before the hearing.<\/p>\n
The judge agreed with me but then said the remedy would be to continue the hearing for 2 or 3 months to give me time to review the video.<\/p>\n
Problem was, the insurance company wasn’t paying – & the judge\u2019s \u201csolution\u201d would just allow for more insurance company delay.<\/p>\n
So I talked to Constanza – she knew she got knocked down hard but it happened pretty fast and she didn\u2019t remember the details.<\/p>\n
I believed her.<\/p>\n
I just could not imagine the video would show she was faking or never even got knocked down.<\/p>\n
So I told the judge we were ready to go. Even though the insurance company lawyer hadn\u2019t done the right thing, I was confident it wouldn\u2019t hurt the case.<\/p>\n
So what did the video show?<\/p>\n
A supervisor operating a motorized pallet jack who ran into the pallet Constanza was standing on, knocking her over. The grainy video showed her getting her legs knocked out from under her and falling – the insurance company lawyer’s argument was she fell to her right but her injuries (like a fractured rib) were on the left side of her body.<\/p>\n
We just got the judge’s decision and after all of that, let\u2019s just say the judge was not impressed with the insurance company’s argument…<\/p>\n
This case was a great reminder of why we do this – you gotta believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2033,"template":"","pa_category":[],"result_type":[8],"class_list":["post-2032","results","type-results","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","result_type-settlement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t