Bad back claims are a biggie — there’s no visible injury and nothing to be tested, just a claimant’s subjective claim that “my back hurts”, backed up by a doctor saying “he says his back hurts, therefore, his back hurts.”

Often you’ll get doctors to come in and say that a car accident victim has a “bulging disc”, but the truth is that many people have these anyway. Even if you strike gold as a defense attorney and find pre-accident medical images showing that the “bulging disc” was already there, well, no problem… doc just says, the accident EXACERBATED the problem. Ah, right. The case is now worth $75,000 instead of $90,000… great.

I scream into the wind that the whole “bulging disc” lawsuit fraud is the most undiscussed, uncovered and EXPENSIVE scam going. But like so many great scams, everyone gets a piece: the doctors, the insurance companies, the lawyers, the courts, the experts, the court reporters, and certainly, the plaintiffs. The only losers — probably to the tune of billions — are “consumers in general.”

Not too long thereafer a video emerged showing that in May of 2008 Arroyo had participated in a national bodybuilding tournament. The link is to the Boston Globe.

http://tinyurl.com/5mozqj