This Case Was a Great Reminder of Why We Do This

I want you to meet one of my current clients, Constanza.

What’s it like when an insurance company doesn’t believe you, tries to take advantage of you or just makes life difficult when you’re dealing with a serious injury or illness?

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.
A hard worker.

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.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right?

The insurance company abruptly cut off all benefits. No real reason (they don’t really have to give a reason in D.C.)

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’t 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’t even know it existed until the hearing. I should have gotten it well before the hearing.

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.

Problem was, the insurance company wasn’t paying – & the judge’s “solution” would just allow for more insurance company delay.

So I talked to Constanza – she knew she got knocked down hard but it happened pretty fast and she didn’t remember the details.

I believed her.

I just could not imagine the video would show she was faking or never even got knocked down.

So I told the judge we were ready to go. Even though the insurance company lawyer hadn’t done the right thing, I was confident it wouldn’t hurt the case.

So what did the video show?

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.

We just got the judge’s decision and after all of that, let’s just say the judge was not impressed with the insurance company’s argument…

This case was a great reminder of why we do this – you gotta believe.