James Hankins and Samantha Mullis secure a discovery win against a medical funding company, which will have implications for future cases.
In the case of Cardona v. Barry McGown et. al., after learning that a funding company was responsible for referring a Plaintiff to doctors and approving medical treatments, James and Samantha sought discovery from that funding company. The funding company refused to provide requested documents (i.e. communications with plaintiff’s counsel, purchase contracts, amounts paid to the medical providers), objecting that the Requests were overbroad, irrelevant, protected by the Georgia Collateral Source Rule, proprietary, and privileged. James and Samantha filed a motion to compel the production of the requested documents, and they recently argued a Motion to Compel Document Production from that funding company in front of the State Court of Cobb County.
At the hearing, Samantha argued that the documents are discoverable because they show the reasonableness of Plaintiff’s medical expenses along with bias on the part of the medical provider. The funding company reiterated its objections, claiming that it is a non-recourse provider of funding to injured plaintiffs and that any documents it had are protected by the Collateral Source Rule.
After the hearing, the trial judge agreed with James and Samantha and he found that that the documents sought may be admissible to show bias on the part of medical providers, attack the credibility of the providers, and may admissible on the issue of the reasonable value of the medical treatment, and are therefore, discoverable. The trial judge went on to order the funding company to produce the requested documentation.
Although this discovery win will be helpful in defending the Cardona case, the trial court’s order will have broad implications and support future arguments in support of seeking discovery from funding companies. If you have any questions on the role of medical funding companies in litigation, feel free to reach out to James and Samantha to discuss this matter further.
