Brown Sims is Proud to Announce Another Significant Defense Victory
Brown Sims is proud to announce another significant defense victory. Shareholder Rebecca F. Stillman and Associate Jahlen G. Livingston secured a complete denial of benefits on behalf of its client in a Defense Base Act claim before the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law Judges.
The claimant alleged that his security work in Iraq caused PTSD and other psychological injuries. Rather than accept those allegations at face value, the defense focused on the objective medical evidence and inconsistencies throughout the record. After weighing all evidence, the Administrative Law Judge found that the claimant's accounts of his experiences, symptoms, and treatment history were not credible, afforded significant weight to the employer's expert psychologist, and concluded that the claimant failed to prove any work-related psychological injury. Notably, Judge Monica Markley stated, “[m]y review of the record reveals notable unexplained inconsistencies between Claimant’s deposition testimony and statements he made to treatment providers and medical experts in this case. Taken in isolation, any single inconsistency may be construed as perhaps benign, but when taken together with the rest of the record, I am persuaded that Claimant is not credible.” Judge Markley did not give probative weight to Claimant’s expert regarding a past diagnosis and found his opinion was not persuasive as the expert relied on Claimant’s self-report and the treating doctor’s diagnosis, which were unreliable and unsupported. The result: a complete denial of compensation and medical benefits.
Congratulations to Rebecca and Jahlen on this outstanding victory.
