“A lot of patients who are whiplashed in these car accidents are being abused because the insurance companies try to settle with them before they even know they are injured. So, I gained the experience and confidence to become something of a patient advocate,” says Dr. James Joseph Lehman, director of health sciences post graduate education dept. at the University of Bridgeport.
Lehman earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Logan University in 1972. During his 33 years as a resident of New Mexico he completed his MBA and his Diplomate as a board-certified chiropractic orthopedist. He founded a chiropractic service within the Orthopedic Department at the Lovelace Medical Center, served on the University of New Mexico School of Medicine advisory committee, was active in the New Mexico Chiropractic Association and voted Chiropractor of the Year three times. He is a frequent guest lecturer and has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Lehman’s experience treating whiplash victims brought him to the attention of the legal community where he now serves plaintiff and defense clients. His first stint as an expert witness was in 1975. “I knew nothing about forensics or expert witness stuff. The case involved two sisters who were patients involved in a car accident. The case went to trial, and I’m telling you, that was a baptism by fire,” he says.
One of his most memorable cases occurred in Ohio and involved a young man who experienced Cauda Equina Syndrome. The man’s chiropractor performed a treatment that caused the disc in the spine to press against nerves that go to the genitalia, the bladder, and the lower extremities, which caused the patient to lose sexual function. He wanted to have more children. “That was tragic for him. Worse, I was told that usually with these plaintiff type cases in Ohio, the chance of winning is about 10 percent. The young man’s surgeon and I provided our expert testimony, and the patient won a significant amount of money.”
Lehman says, “I really started to enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to be involved with medical legal cases, and I really grew to become very comfortable in the courtroom.”
He advises attorneys looking for chiropractic expert witnesses to follow three guidelines. One is to find someone who is thoroughly honest. Number two is to seek someone competent and, if at all possible, experienced in the courtroom. Number three is to work only with chiropractic, orthopedic and neuromusculoskeletal experts who are board certified.
“A chiropractic expert who has actually been credentialed in a hospital or a medical clinic of some sort is going to have better training, better experience level, and probably serve as a much better expert. He or she probably has a better personality for that type of work. You better have your act together when you go to court.”
Lehman enjoys working on fraud cases because they’re very complicated. The challenge requires diligent work to evaluate and then appropriately create reports that help the attorneys to reveal the fraud. He says he also enjoys the role of educator in helping attorneys and insurance companies.
“I’m so happy that I am a chiropractor. And I feel like I have to give back. I mean, protecting the profession by eliminating fraudulent practitioners is one thing that I appreciate having the opportunity to do.”
