LOIS Partner Christian Sison and Paralegal Julia Skarimbas represented an advertising and public relations employer in a claim filed by a Software Engineer in a New York Workers’ Compensation case. The Software Engineer alleged that after only 19 months of work, he had developed injuries due to repetitive typing on a computer. LOIS investigated the Software Engineer’s background and discovered that he had a prior injury claim for carpal tunnel syndrome in Illinois. The litigation team secured several favorable delays over six hearings. These delays covered a span of eight months, as Sison successfully cited the Claimant’s inability to produce proper discovery. At a deposition, Sison questioned the Software Engineer’s medical expert, who admitted that the Software Engineer did not provide much detail about the prior claim and the current job duties.
At trial, Sison confronted the Software Engineer, who had conveniently failed to recall the $39,000.00 settlement he received from the Illinois claim. Sison also used effective cross-examination questions to have the Software Engineer allege that his symptoms in the Illinois claim and the New York claim were different. Sison concluded for the Law Judge that Software Engineer’s testimony was not credible, given that his own expert in New York specifically noted a numbness symptom that was present in the prior Illinois claim. The Law Judge ruled that the Software Engineer had not met his burden of proving medical causal relationship, disallowing the claim in its entirety.
