Submitted by New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark.
In New Jersey if you were involved in a motor vehicle crash and purchased “verbal threshold” or “limited tort” insurance coverage you have to prove by way of sufficient objective credible medical evidence that you suffer a permanent injury. This is true whether you are in Cumberland County, Camden county, Mercer County, Burlington county, Atlantic County, Middlesex County, Essex County, Union county, Bergen County, hundred and county, Sussex County or any other county in New Jersey.
In this case the plaintiff’s attorney used his client’s family physician to provide an opinion regarding a “brain injury”. Obviously, in this case, the family doctor could not provide credible objective medical testimony/proofs concerning a Trumatic brain injury. This opinion could only be provided by a neurologist who specializes in brain injury cases. As a result the judge throughout the doctor’s opinion as being “a net opinion”. I have written numerous blogs on what a net opinion is. Essentially, a net opinion is expert professional opinion that is not supported by the evidence of the case, or the expert is not qualified in the specific field of expertise required to provide of the opinion to support the conclusion as in the case.
Here, there’s no way a family doctor could provide an opinion regarding a traumatic brain injury because he is a not a qualified neurologist/neurosurgeon.
Essentially this attorney wasted his time and the client’s expectations.in proceeding with this case without the appropriate confident qualified medical expert who was able to provide objective credible medical evidence to support his conclusions within a reasonable degree of medical certainty.
Jeffrey S. Hark, Esq.
609-471-1959. Cell
856-354-0050 Office