We are excited to announce a major win secured by Jones Jones LLC Associate Dana Sabghir. This win showcases:
- Our innovative approach to denied claims;
- The importance of our focused witness preparation;
- The impact of securing subpoenaed medical records and thoroughly reviewing them for use in litigation; and
- Targeted testimony of the claimant with use of medical records to develop a clear timeline for a path towards disallowance of numerous body parts and conditions.
This airline claim involved a claimant’s allergic reaction, which had been established for contact dermatitis. The claimant later requested lost time benefits dating back to 2017, and raised numerous neurological and autoimmune conditions. Though the Law Judge found prima facie medical evidence, Attorney Sabghir believed that the lost time and additional conditions could not reasonably be related to the contact dermatitis, and so she began her skillful defense. First, she cross-examined the claimant and presented our expert witnesses, who had been extensively prepared for testimony. The claimant was asked detailed questions about her complaints, the timeline of her alleged symptoms, her prior treatment, her family history, the alleged exposure that she was relating all of these conditions to, her lost time, etc. Based on her testimony, and her concessions regarding prior treatment, Attorney Sabghir requested a HIPAA and a list of all treating providers.
Next, the Jones Jones LLC subpoena team subpoenaed thousands of pages of medical records. In those records, we determined that the claimant had a family history of autoimmune disorders, history of allergies, among other medical findings. We also learned that the claimant had trained in a different field, and obtained a professional certificate, just before the alleged allergic reaction. The Jones Jones LLC team sent these voluminous records to our Independent Medical Examiner for review, and the doctor conducted a thorough physical examination. Ultimately, the IME found no causal relationship for these additional sites, and depositions were directed of the claimant’s treating doctors. We focused our deposition questions on very specific details that we had learned in the subpoenaed records. The doctors conceded that they were not aware of the prior complaints and treatment, conceded that they did not know how the accident of record could have caused her neurological and autoimmune conditions, and conceded that they could not relate these conditions to the accident of record within a reasonable degree of medical certainty.
Lastly, Attorney Sabghir requested re-cross-examination of the claimant based on her review of the records. She noted the various contradictions between the claimant’s initial testimony, the history related in the medical records, and her latest testimony. The Law Judge reviewed the extensive medical record, the lay testimony, the medical testimony, and our arguments, and ultimately disallowed all of the additional sites claimed, and properly found that the claimant had no compensable lost time with no entitlement to awards. Our success was a result of the extensive concessions Attorney Sabghir was able to obtain from the claimant and her doctors. This litigation plan exemplifies the Jones Jones LLC signature determination and focus needed to successfully litigate the most complicated of claims.