The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a case on behalf of one of its clients wherein we filed a Petition to Seek Additional Compensation Due seeking compensation for a permanent impairment to the lumbar spine of our injured client. Our client is a City of Wilmington police officer with a history of prior back problems. Our client testified that on July 30, 2017, he was dispatched to an address and needed to run down an alleyway and up some stairs. A suspect was apprehended and placed in our client’s car. Later, our client began feeling a very strange feeling in his back and completed his work shift. The next day, after he woke up, he was in excruciating pain with pain both in his back and leg. The issue in front of the Industrial Accident Board was whether or not our client had an identifiable permanent impairment rating as it related to the July 30, 2017 work incident. The Industrial Accident Board found that our client’s testimony was credible as was the permanency rating of our expert, Dr. Meyers. Remarkably, the doctor hired by the City of Wilmington, Dr. Fedder, provided no permanency rating as it was his position that our client’s current problems were subsumed in his previous back injuries. The Industrial Accident Board found that Dr. Meyers’ methodology was superior to that of Dr. Fedder, and, as a result, awarded our client the 11% permanency rating to his lumbar spine as rated by Dr. Meyers. The Industrial Accident Board further ordered the City of Wilmington to pay an attorney’s fee and reimburse our office for the expert witness fee testimony of Dr. Meyers. (Tolbert v. City of Wilmington, Hearing No.: 1462941 Date of Decision: April 27, 2020.)
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