Gary could not be more proud and has a lot of gratitude for being able to help Kelly and her family-they’re very good, honest and kind people who deserved good aggressive and honest representation.  Thank you to the Sinn family.

The next time you are on a jury, know that the person that caused the harm probably had insurance.

            Over the last six years we were able to accomplish a lot on his behalf.  Specifically, at the beginning of the case the defense was treating the claim simply as a thumb injury.  The first offer was a few thousand dollars.  Later, on March 22, 2006, after our high demand, the offer was $12,693.56.  That was before any additional medical care, which we requested and received on his behalf.  If we had accepted the offer in March of 2006, we would not have received the additional surgeries to extract the nail from the nail bed and he would have received no money for psychiatric injury at all.  At that time the defense stated, “It is our position that any depression or anxiety that he may be feeling as a result of factors completely unrelated to his employment at Antonia Fabricators or his work related injury of July 26, 2005.”

            As a result of that position we started hiring experts.  On June 13, 2006, the offer was increased to $13,253.57.  We immediately rejected that offer and said that we believe that it was more than just a thumb case as it was a hand and thumb case and that it caused terrible depression and I said so in my letter to them of August 4, 2006.  In response, on October 6, 2006, we were offered $14,886.93, which was 110% of the thumb and 5 weeks disfigurement and 5% of the hand.  We stuck to our position that the psychiatric element was completely related and continued to press towards trial.  On February 14, 2006, there had only been $7,861.00 in medical expenses paid.  They have now paid a total of $16,159.00 in medical.  That difference, a little over $8,000.00 was a direct result of our advocacy and we are entitled to a fee on that amount.  Without our representation, he would have not received any additional medical care.

           In February of 2007, I sent him to a psychiatrist who helped us secure the psychiatric portion of the case.  As late as July 25, 2007, the offer remained $14,886.93.  On September 7, 2007, they gave us their best offer which was $28,673.77.

           We had a mediation and the Judge said the case was limited to the thumb.  I told the Judge and opposing counsel that we disagreed with the Court’s opinion and we would try the case knowing that the Judge could not be the trial Judge.  We continued to press forward to trial and the counsel that was on the case defending it was removed from the file.  We stuck to our position that we would win at trial and the defense thought it was outrageous that we were seeking so much money for the loss of the tip of a thumb (keep in mind that workers’ compensation does not pay for pain and suffering, but only for permanent partial disability).  The defense took my client’s deposition on May 20, 2010 and in May they offered us $37,073.91. They insisted that was their last and final offer and that they would never pay any additional monies.  I told them that we would not accept $37,000.00 as we now had a lot of expenses and they agreed to provide us structured settlements, which we also refused to accept because we wanted to have our money in a lump sum.  On June 7, 2011, the adjuster wrote us directly saying that the offer of $37,073.91 would stand for fifteen days only so we waited over a month and told them again that we were planning on going to trial.

             The case did settle for $40,000.00 which is 30% of the body as a whole and 30% of the hand, a far cry from the $1,400.00 original offer.  This is not a large dollar resolution, but it is a large victory on a percentage basis.  It occurred only after we were completely ready for trial.

If you, a friend or family member need aggressive representation with a Missouri Workers’ Compensation claim, please contact Cantor & Burger at 314-542-9999.

Debbie & Gary Corcoran