Litigating MIST Cases

New Report for Purchasers

Buy a copy of my new book and I am giving you a BRAND new, free report. This report you can use as a handout to chiropractors to provide them with 10 tips to help them treat MIST patients.

With this report, you can explain to chiropractors why they should not release their tax ID numbers, why they need to be careful on who they work with, and why they need to keep good records. There are seven other tips.

These tips will help you show the chiropractor the value in learning about MIST cases and how the chiropractor can treat the patient to help you accomplish your goal - obtain a fair and reasonable settlement for your client.

Order the book now (either paper or PDF) and you get the report FREE! This is information you will not get with any other MIST book.

Med Pay Reimbursement

Every state is different. But, when it comes to med pay, if you have a reimbursement provision subject to the made whole doctrine (or make whole doctrine, depending on your state), you have an interesting argument with MIST cases.

The insurance companies take the position that these cases have no value and that people are not hurt. So, if the bills are paid by med pay, you can turn around and use two arguments against the first party insurance company that is seeking reimbursement.

Option A: If you have an insurer who argues on these cases, and you will know this by keeping the spreadsheet discussed in the book, then you can argue that if no one is hurt, then they should not have paid the medical bills. If the bills are not reasonable and necessary because no one is hurt, you don't owe them any money. Simple enough.

Option B: You argue that your client was not made whole. When the client is not made whole, the insurer should not recover any money. There are a variety of cases on point, but see Chong v. State Farm in California. And if you can get a copy of it, my article on Forum Magazine from CAOC that provides cites to other cases in other states. (I am working on a getting a copy on the website.)  You then argue that the client was not made whole since the third party insurer did not offer full value of the case due to the "amount of damage."

These two tricks should help you when you can use the made whole doctrine.

UPDATE: You can get my article by clicking here: Download 0703-pg31-stein.pdf

Buy the Book!

You can now buy the book online if you choose to pay with Paypal. Click on the buttons on the left or right of the top column, depending on which version you want. Or click on the category to buy the book! If you want to pay by check, you can still email me at mist@jonathangstein.com

Your client's information

Its being sent overseas. Yes, the insurance companies are sending your client's information overseas. Health insurers have been doing this for years. But now the auto insurance companies are doing it. Here is when:

1. They are sending medical records to doctors to review radiological reports and other records to provide input on reasonable and necessity of treatment.

2. They are sending medical records to be input in to the databases, ie Colossus and similar programs.

3. They are sending medical bills over to be re-coded.

The insurance companies are trying to cut costs. One way is to decrease the costs of medical reviews and data entry. Since the costs of these services are less overseas, it benefits the insurers.

At this point, sit tight. Don't worry about it. Wait and see what the insurers do and if there are any breaches of privacy. Then, you can formulate a game plan.

Buy the PDF Version Here

You can now buy the PDF version of Litigating MIST Cases here.

Buy the Paper Version Here

You can now by the paper version of the Litigating MIST Cases book here!

What is a MIST case?

It dawned on me that some people reading this may not know what a MIST case is. So, here are some definitions:

Actual - Minimum Impact, Soft Tissue (M.I.S.T.)

Practical - Any car crash with less than $1,500 in property damage and a soft tissue type injury, i.e. neck or back pain, sometimes called "whiplash."

Note that some insurance companies may call these by other names. These include:

LVI - Low Velocity Impact
LIST - Light Impact Soft Tissue.

A New Resource

Courtesy of Attorney's Medical Services, Inc comes this video, Low Speed Vehicular Crash Tests.

From the website:

This 5 minute video uses the Hybrid II crash test dummy to demonstrate key facts about rear impact automobile collisions, while dispelling often used myths such as: - No property damage means low speed - Bumpers are damaged in any collision over 5 m.p.h. - Damage analysis can prove a collision was a low speed impact - Forces on the body in an automobile crash are like sitting in a chair.

The video also demonstrates that, in a rear impact, there are forces applied to the occupant that match the locations of commonly diagnosed injuries of the back and neck. While automobile collisions vary, the tests shown in this video are applicable to most rear end crashes. Variation from the baseline depicted in this test will typically result in greater injury potential.

About the Book Author

Mr. Stein is a former insurance adjuster who now handles cases on behalf of injured individuals. Mr. Stein began his career in 1995 at Prudential Insurance, when the first MIST units were being set up. Back then, the insurance companies called them MIU - Minimum Impact Units. After moving to CIGNA, Mr. Stein continued handling MIST cases while also branching out to be a truly multi-line adjuster. Mr. Stein then moved to Crawford and Company, an independent adjusting firm. At Crawford, Mr. Stein honed his methods of handling MIST cases. Mr. Stein handled thousands and thousands of claims during his time as an adjuster.

Mr. Stein graduated from McGeorge School of Law  with distinction. After working for a defense firm, Mr. Stein opened the Law Offices of Jonathan G. Stein where most of his work is in MIST cases.

After reading the current materials on MIST cases and seeing the questions that Plaintiff's attorneys had on MIST case, Mr. Stein decided to put his knowledge down in a book designed to help attorneys handle MIST cases. Unlike the other offerings that provide the science of handling MIST cases, Mr. Stein provides a practical, how-to approach on handling MIST cases.

Mr. Stein provides tips and tricks that he learned while working at the insurance companies and that he successfully uses in his practice daily.

Table of Contents

Here is the table of contents for Litigating MIST Cases: A Practical Approach from Intake through Trial:

Preface

Chapter 1: Magic Words

Chapter 2: Colossus

Chapter 3: Client Intake

Chapter 4: Early Stages of Representation

Chapter 5: Negotiation

Chapter 6: The Lawsuit

Chapter 7: Discovery

Chapter 8: Expert Witnesses

Chapter 9: Settlement During Litigation

Chapter 10: Trial

Conclusion

Appendix A: Resources

Appendix B: Forms

Remember, email me at mist@jonathangstein.com for more information!