Blog, Chirosecure Live Event February 28, 2023

Personal Injury – Are You a Risk and Liability to Lawyers?

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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  We suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Studin, and first, I’d like to thank ChiroSecure, the opportunity for giving me the platform to share this information with you.

Today we’re gonna talk about personal injury, personal injury lawyers, and not. , will they work with you? But can they work with you?

And we’re gonna go to the slides now, and I’m gonna explain the entire thank you best I can in the time that’s allotted. So the question is, oh, by the way, a little bit of housekeeping. I’m a little bit of a nerd. I’m working on four screens. I’m gonna be reading off a screen this way and then looking at you this way, so I apologize for the side.

So the question is, it’s can they work with you? Will they work with you and why? So my initial paradigm was my wife actually, who had cancer three times, 2008, 10, and 11. She had kidney cancer. She’s great. She said multiple surgeries. But originally when we started, I had to find a cancer surgeon and I found the right guy.

We live in New York, so I went from Boston to New York to Philly to Washington. And if you can’t find the right doctor in that, You’re in trouble. I found the right guy in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and I called to get an appointment and they said six months. They said six months. Are you crazy?

She’ll be dead by them. I’m sorry. The doctor’s busy. He gets patients from Europe and Africa and South America. There’s only two hands. I don’t take no for an answer, so I called everyone I know. Senators, assemblymen, congressmen, other department chairman. It took me three weeks. I got her an appointment and the moral of the story is she’s doing great and it was the right doctor and going through that process, she needed a hematologist, she had a complication, she needed this.

She knew that and it was the same thing. To get the best of the best to get an appointment was challenging. And going through that process for five years, I said to myself, why do. Patients not run after chiropractors the same way I ran after those cancer surgeons. You know what, yeah, they deal with more life and death than we do.

But if you are patient can’t function and they don’t have a life. , then their life is upside down and they need you as much as I needed that cancer surgeon. So that’s all nonsense. So I’ve spent the last 11 years trying to figure out how to get your referral sources to run after you, and we actually crack the code, but then we have another issue.

The other issue is lawyers have to get past hurdles in order to get cases to trial. Or significant settlements, and that’s taking me a little over. I think it’s been 13 months now. And we finally figured out the reason why, and let’s just look at a graph. This was the last 13 months, but I started before that and I used my medical school academia cuz I, I’m a clinical instructor at the graduate medical level for the State University of New York and Buffalo Jacob School of Medicine and biomedical science is from multiple courses.

And I was able to use that hat in communicating with multiple different attorneys and medical doctors, surgeons, ortho, neuro neurosurgeons, pain management doctors to determine why people work with us and not, and why. And the question is, here’s the relationship to the lawyer. First, I thought we were a risk to the.

and they don’t want to work with us. But then it changed. We became, we’ve become a liability to the lawyer based upon rules of the courts. So you’re either a risk and liability or the lawyer’s secret weapon. If you can get past three specific hurdles, and I’m not gonna really talk about those hurdles other than to mention them.

Number one is preexisting issues, two restraint sprain. And third is low speed impact crashes. So those are lawyers hurdles before they can even get to you, but we’ll talk about that at a different time. So we’re gonna delve. A good narrative versus a bad narrative. We’re gonna talk about Colossus reporting using the Colossus paradigm to get the lawyers to want to refer to you.

We’re gonna talk about X-ray digitizing, and that’s supposed to say A O M S I, not just O M S I. It’s a typo. Using that is the reason for the lawyers to work with you and then your credentials as a doctor of chiropractic, which by the way, are incredible. , but not enough. Then we’re gonna talk about demonstrative reporting and chiropractic and MD credentials, and those things are critically important to understand, critically all of them.

And that’s when you morph over from a risk and a liability to the lawyer’s secret weapon. So let’s start with narratives now as good as a narrative as you. , even the best of the chiropractic narratives are considered a liability to the lawyers unless there is an invasive surgical procedure To piggyback that report, see, they’re using you for continuum of care, just like the physical therapist.

You’ve been relegated down to that level. because they really have a challenging time using your words. They just do. Now, your report will be considered additional functional losses as well to that surgery. That’s why lawyers are strongly pushing for surgical consultations in every single case. Now, watch, here’s.

Here’s the paradigm of the lawyer. You ready? Here’s their mantra. Ortho neuro neurosurgeon, ortho Neuro. It’s a song. They sing it, it’s in their head, and there’s a reason for that, and I’m gonna get to those reasons in just a little bit. The reason is because the ortho neuro neurosurgeon, if it’s non-surgical, 23 years ago, the insurance companies tweaked their algorithm.

An actual computer science corporation outta Southern California did it. They tweaked their algorithms so that they paid the orthos neurons a little bit more. So that they don’t go to you, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. Concurrently these doctors, and by the way, you have certain doctors who believe that medical validation is critically important.

In every single case, I want an ortho, neuro neurosurg, pain management, pH physiatrist even a gp. I want medical validation in every case. Guess what? Those doctors are be being profiled by the carrier. Who are aggregating statistics over time and sweeping up all of the players in the scheme.

Where most referrals are circumspect clinically, why are you referring that patient to the or neuro neurosurgeon? Is there a clinical reason? Do you have a herniated disc that’s abutting or compressing the cord? Do you have significant motor loss? Do you have a foot drop? Do you have significant paraesthesia?

Why would you refer that patient out? Is there a myelopathic finding? Do you know the difference between radiculopathy and myelopathy? If you don’t go back to school, you have to know that even if you take care of only Medicare patients, but is there a significant myelopathic finding? Is there a myelomalacia or court edema?

All of these different things are you looking at as sx, and do you have a SX in the lower lumbar spine? Which is a trick question by the way. You have to know all of those. To determine if it’s appropriate to make that referral. Because if you’re just referring because it’s a trauma case, it’s a personal injury that looks like you’re colluding with the lawyers in order to make the case more valuable and more money.

So the lawyer likes you better, so they’ll refer more cases to you, and that’s un good. That’s where Mr. Rico can come knocking on your door. Rico is under the organized racketeering. In federal courts where the insurance companies really are using the power of computers to really ferret out those who are doing things inappropriately.

Then there’s those that created the colossus busting reports, and they’ve been esp espousing this for 10 years. Every couple of years there is always a get rich quick scheme in our. Colossus was one of those. And by the way, it’s real. And for those of you who don’t know what Colossus is, it was created in the 1980s by the government of Australia who wants to put, who wanted to create a dollar value on injured workers who were going out permanently on disability.

Allstate in the 1980s realized there were too many claims were making financial decisions and not enough automation. So they went to Australia, they loved that they bought it. They came back to the States and called it Colossus. Today there is 80 to 90. Programs like Colossus, state Farm calls, theirs teach.

Everyone calls it something different, but for this conversation, we’ll call it Colossus. It’s real, and lawyers don’t care. Colossus busting reports will get you zero referrals, but they will get you unwanted additional scrutiny cuz the carriers are looking at your 68 diagnoses. Your medical validations.

I can go right down the list. I know them all. Although duties under duress and loss of enjoyment of life, although are important in the case, will not get you additional referrals. I promise you. I’ve surveyed over 10,000 recently. lecture to attorneys. And by the way, I’ve lectured to probably close to 400,000 lawyers in 39 states.

And although train an impairment rating, they have to have impairment ratings. And most medical doctors are not qualified to render an impairment rating. It’s within their license, but they’re not qualified. And you needed a course of impairment rating. So I just recently sat with a group of attorneys in new.

Who I’ve lectured to at least 10 times each of them, of the importance of an impairment rating in their case, which can be worth upwards of 75% of the settlement value 10 years later. Guess how many are using it? Zero. Not a zilch gunk, whatever language you want. Not one because they don’t get it. They don’t get it.

And as a result of not getting it, they’re not using it. And if you talk to them, oh, I have colo reports, they don’t care. You’re falling on deaf ears. It will not get you the case. And when they see all of these inflammatory diagnoses and I’m not saying they’re not necess, it’s, it might be necessary, it might not, but you’re an outlier and it gets them nervous and they think you’re a liability.

And when they see all on every single case, the same MDs referred to, they’re concerned that they’re gonna go down in your reliability. They’re not gonna wanna work with you. And I’ve, and I’m. I was in, I’m in Florida tonight. I was in New Jersey last week. I’m gonna bring, be in Nebraska in a few weeks.

And I’m in Texas. California Colorado. I go all around the country. It’s no different. It’s just no different. Let’s talk about x-ray, digitizing and A O M S I. At least they got the typo right in the red. If this is the core of your argument to lawyers to work with you thug, forget about it. Just forget about.

I am an owner of Sim Verta. It is an x-ray digitizing platform and possibly the best in the industry. Hey, I could say that it’s mine, but unless you have the ability to document all bodily injuries, demonstratively lawyers will be intrigued with a 25% or whatever it is, whole person. But will not consider their shifting, not consider shifting their referral patterns to you.

It’s ortho neuro neurosurg bypassing you. I get calls every day from doctors, Hey, I’m using your platform. How come I’m not getting all these referrals? I said, because I never promised you would. And if you are using x-ray digitizing, you need additional credentials in spinal biomechanical.

It’s just the way it is. You have to have the credentials or you won’t pass voirdire, you won’t pass an expert hearing, and that’s critically important. Now with that being said, sorry, I was just looking for something. With that being said, it’s important and it helps with Demonstr ability, it helps tremendously.

We had a case in New Jersey. It was in Clark, New Jersey. Four weeks ago where the lawyer went from 10,000 to 90,000 in settlement, only using subverted technology. It could also age, date sub verta has the ability to age, date pathology, which we’re not gonna get into today. So there’s a lot of really good things going on.

With x-ray, digitizing, there’s a lot of great things going on with it. It’s wonderful. But if that’s the core of your argument, to get them to shift their referral pattern to you, it’s not going to happen. I don’t think so. I know so, . I’ve been with the attorneys much too much. Too many of them, too many other doctors I worked with say it’s, and it’s just not enough.

When you have all the other things, this is an incredibly important tool that you need. You need x-ray, digitizing need with a capital N, but if that’s the core of what you do, and that’s your argument, let me say this again. Here we go. Lawyers will be intrigued with the whole person impairment, but will not consider shifting their referral patterns to you.

It’s not enough of the puzzle for them, and they will still work predominantly with their ortho neurosurgeon. They go on and on. Now, let’s talk about your chiropractic credentials. The insurance industry hires people to template responses to the a. I know because I’ve lectured inside the insurance industry in my career extensively.

Here it is. You ready? You only have a chiropractor with the inflection, by the way. That’s how they’re treated. You only have a chiropractor. That’s what they’re telling the attorneys. They don’t wanna work with you. You know what? I heard that last 10 minutes before I went online. I spoke to one of the largest law firms on the East coast, and they say, but you’re only chiropractor.

And I’ve heard that from every carrier. You’re only a chiropractor. Listen, I love chiropractic and I, and think that is all you should need. However, there is a definitive prejudice within the court systems slanted against doctors of chiropractic. Multiple recent motion in Lemonades Motions in Lemonade.

It’s a, which we’re going to talk about a lot in a few minutes. That’s a court motion to preclude chiropractors from testifying in anything other than what their hands touch. They’re attempting to limit chiropractors. on MRI finding results, causality, ligamentous injuries, permanency. They only want you to do what your hands touch.

There’s a tremendous prejudice against chiropractic and if your only credential and a credential is not just the DC after your name, a credential is all the courses that you post on your curriculum. Vita and your curriculum, Vita is your current business. , make no bones about it. Your curriculum Vita is what you should work on every single day to build and make stronger demonstrative.

Reporting is critical now. That’s when you’re starting to become the lawyer’s secret weapon. We have devised a way to report Lee. I’ve devised a way to report the majority of spider related bodily injuries, demonstratively and pain. This has never been done before in our. inclusive of medical specialists.

When I first revealed this a little over a year and a half ago, I had a Harvard trained neuroradiologist look at it and say, Holy crap. Where’d you figure that out? Who told you this? I said, no one. I just figured it out. And that’s what’s needed. Because I study intensively what the needs of the courts are in order for attorneys to prevail.

I look extensively what the needs of surgeons are to better understand the pathology. And they’re now learning from chiropractors. He said to me, mark, they didn’t train us on that in Harvard. I wish they did, but even if they did, I wouldn’t have the time to do it. So here’s the re and by the way, This is not something you could learn in a weekend course.

You need real credentials behind you on interpreting mri, UN understanding connective tissue pathology, which is strain sprain at a significant level. The evidence behind it how to interpret it, how to be able to show it, and how to use certain computer programs to interface with the mri images that you’re looking at.

Then you need to be able. Do things such as clinically correlate the but four causality, which I don’t have time to explain. Demonstrative bodily injury, which I’m talking about right now. And then persistent functional loss. Justice Colossus explained it with duties under duress, loss of enjoyment of life while.

You are handling the preexisting issues and ruling out preexisting issues or ruling in if you timing it cuz there are 14 physiologically valid ways to age, date pathology, specifically with disc. There are 14 ways to do that. You have to be able to look at artes which is arties. It’s not arthritis.

It’s an arthropathy pathology of the joint. It’s not an inflammation. You have to be able to look at all of. And clinically correlate them. In the last year, we’ve got, and I’m gonna show you some stats in a moment, I’ll just pop over. Here we go. You ready? Settlements have increased across the country by 1076%, verdicts by 3526%, and non herniation settlements by 776%.

If the lawyers prevail ethically, you succeed with referrals. That will be hard pressed to. For the balance of your career, you’re gonna be hard pressed for them to not refer to you. This is real, folks. This is real. These are your settlements. Alabama, California, Colorado. Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia.

This is preliminary. We’ve just started acquiring these statistics. 1076% in verdicts. You ready? This is just. 3526% takes a little bit more time to get verdicts out of the way because we just started doing this work within a few months. And they haven’t all gone to court yet, but it just works easy.

And in the burnt orange, those are the ones where we’ve just used some verta. Offer connective tissue, straight sprain only, and that’s the settlements we’re getting. 25,000 to 4 95 no mri. 25,000 to a bucket a quarter, no mri, a 5,000 to 90. I didn’t put the 10,000 to 90 up and I could go on and on around the country.

So it’s working. Once you remove the deceptive rhetoric, and replace that with demonstr ability to verify, and not just the body, I bodily injury, but pain as well. And we’re making demonstrable things like herniated disc, spinal cord involvement with myelomalacia or cord edema, fecal sac involvement the disc itself showing where the pathology is, we’re looking.

Nerve root abutment. We’re looking at chemical radiculitis. All of these things can be seen and have to be shown and drawn up in a very specific pattern so that a junior high school kid understands it. Then we look at credentials. Look, I love chiropractic. I said that before, but in the aforementioned motion in.

Being cross credentialed through chiropractic and medical academia is the arbiter between being accepted as an expert or not. A motion in limine is a motion that the a defense lawyer brings in a case like this to prevent you, the chiropractor from testifying. Now you have to get through something called Voirdire, or Dalbert or Fry or Shrek, depending upon your state.

All of those are standards within the states, which a doctor has to go through a credentialing process. Where a judge can rule, yes, you’re an expert, or no, you’re outta here. The motion in lemonade is to try to get you outta here before you can even have that hearing, and we’re starting to see them all across the country.

Now, by the way, that equates to lawyers working with you or not. If you, if they can’t work with you because you are you don’t have any credential. or the courts rule, you’re not an expert. They’re never gonna work with you, and that’s public record. So there’s no secret society where too often political cronyism gets you into networks.

How do I get these credentials? How do I do all of this? How do I do, become an expert in certain circles in our industry historically, unless you’re involved in this organiz. With a secret handshake, you can’t get into this network that happened to me for almost 20 years of my 42 years in the profession, in my, in New York.

Unless you’re a board member of this state organization, you can’t be in this network. It, it eviscerated my practice. And many others. Guess what? Anybody can do that any willing provider can take courses and get credentials to teach doctors.com Go get, go take courses. Why that particular program?

Because you get credentialed both in chiropractic and medical academia. and that’s important. And the more credentials you have, and again, a CV citation is the credential, the stronger your practice and you will get more referrals if you know how to position your practice. That’s something I can help you.

If you gimme a call, it’ll be my pleasure to share with you. So a doctor of chiropractic is an expert, can be a risk liability or your secret weapon. These are different credentials. Doctors can. MRI interpretation, trauma qualified interprofessional hospital evaluation and management. Every one of these cred qualifications are recognized through Cleveland University College of Chiropractic, but every course in here is recognized through the State University of New York at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine.

If you take all of these courses, you could be conferred a fellow. In Primary Spine Care certified by and enjoined Providership with State University of New York, S U n Y, SUNY Buffalo Medical School and Cleveland. So you can have a medical school. Certify you as a fellow, and then after your DC you get F P S C Fellowship and Primary Spy Care.

If you have that, you become bulletproof to what they call Motion and Lemonades. And that’s a biggie. And we’re starting to see this around the nation. I’d like to take a moment and do something that I really hate to do while I lecture, and that’s read, but I wanna read an article to you that I just wrote.

Y. Because, and I wrote this to my consulting clients and I want to share it with you, but it’s something you need to understand. State Farm has spoken, all State has spoken over and over. You must listen and act before it’s too late for you if you want to have a personal injury practice. Oh, where’d that go?

Wow. That’s bizarre. Okay, let’s do that again and let’s do.

Wow. It’s going blank. Okay, so we’re gonna show it in a different format. It’s gonna be a little smaller. Just bear with me. I’m gonna read trends in any industry. Give insight into the future. and it’s often an accurate crystal ball that enables you to prepare for the future. Whether it’s near or far ignoring trends in any industry is typically the death nail of anyone and giants like Sears Toys or US Pier one, Ringling Brothers, Lehman Brothers Sports Authority, and others have ignored future trends in their.

They held on too long to fail business strategies, which cost them billions and put them out of business. The chiropractic industry is no different. Over the past two decades, I’ve saw trends in our industry to help you prepare for the future. Often that came from stitching together disparate pieces of information.

Looking at subtleties and sometimes just reading the tea leaves today. However, there are no subtleties. State Farm and all State have clearly stated what the future of personal injury is for a chiropractor. There are being hurt financially by you and using the courts to end it. And why say bye you. It’s those credential doctors who have the credentials I shared with you in a moment.

In the past, the carriers used federal RICO cases and other instruments to sue chiropractors after the fact actually to get their money back. Today, the carriers have added motions in limine to prevent their system of deceptive rhetoric from collapsing. A motion in limine is a pretrial motion asking that certain evidence or experts be found inadmissible, whose opinion is not considered a trial.

In this case and others, the goal is to invalidate the chiropractor as an expert and prevent your testimony from being admitted in short, to make you non-existence in the courts and alert lawyers not to work with you in the future. I’ve now seen the same language six times, confirming a trend in a standard of practice by State Farm, Allstate, and other carriers.

The following is a California case, but don’t be fooled by California. It’s the same language nationally. I’m just gonna read the. John Smith, a chiropractor, lacks the qualifications to interpret radiological studies to diagnose a permanent ligament injury and to render a medical opinion on injury causation, which is all absurd.

However, that’s their motion. The doctor defending this motion now realizes that he achieved what he wanted with my, with our programs and personal injury, the carriers fear what he has to offer to a case and now consider him a long-term threat. By the way, that motion was overcome and that case went from, I think, a $50,000 offer to a 3.5 million verdict.

That’s what the carriers are trying to prevent. The carriers are in a no lucid. If they succeed, they knock this doctor out. And most dcs out of the personal injury game, perhaps forever because it’s public record, this doctor will forever be associated with this motion and not permitted to opine in other medical legal cases.

But if the carrier lose, they still succeed because they set the standard for every other DC to opine. And that is everyone other than the trained doctors. So if you have. Credentials with that are co credentialed to chiropractic and medical academia. You are one of those trained doctors and every other chiropractor in the nation just became irrelevant.

You just made your competition irrelevant. The upside for this doctor and all others in this situation. Stand to have their practice to skyrocket if they prevail. Again, this is a public record and they can share this with every potential fur in the region. Once lawyers realize the courts have verified you as an expert, it makes the entire process of referring seamless.

The doctor in Georgia, Dr. Kafer has already defended and prevailed five of these court proceedings with similar language because he was prepared. He did. He listened and did everything. I told him well in advance and I shared with him as I share with all of you. You need to be prepared in advance if you want to succeed over the long haul impersonal injury, and it doesn’t matter what state you’re in.

Unfortunately, the doctor in California, that particular doctor in California, Did not he, the advice and only completed a trauma qualification, a few other courses. He actually went and then finished the interpretation in primary spine care. And he did prevail as a result of that. So I, this is a little old and confident.

The doctor will already prevailed. But if he had listened, it would be a slam dunk. Where do you follow the process of credentials? Please don’t have me say, I told you so after the fact. It is gambling with your career when you’re now in full control of your potential skyrocketing success. If you plan to succeed in personal injury, you need to be bulletproof.

When the carriers are already doing, you need to be trauma qualified. MRI qualified and primary spine care qualified. This is about 250 hours of. Which is more than halfway there towards being a fellow in primary spine care. And again, you get them to teach doctors.com if you’d like. All courses are credentialed through chiropractic and medical academia which resolves most complaints from the carriers.

Folks, listen, I can talk about this for hours, but I am telling you, here’s your caveat, emptor buyer beware. They’re coming. They’re gonna come get you. It’s just a matter of time if you want to be taken seriously as an expert in personal injury. And listen, personal injury is the last best place to earn an incredible living within our in, within our profession.

And I see nothing wrong with treating personal injury cases. I love trauma. But you’ve gotta be qu qualified. It’s within your license, but are you qualified? Are you expert? Can you interpret an MRI that historically has a 43.6% error rate from general radiologists? You need to be insulated from those things.

You’ve gotta be the real deal. Folks, listen, I’d like to thank you so much for sharing your time with me again. I’d like to thank ChiroSecure for the Opportu. to share my message on a periodic basis. It’s an honor and a privilege and I just really appreciate having the opportunity to share my knowledge with you.

I’d like to thank you all and I look forward to seeing you on the next show that I’ve got and next week, and look for ChiroSecure as other shows that they’ve got. They’re just incredible. Thank you. We’ll catch you next time.