R. John Anderson and Anne Belanger teamed up to bring a chronic pain case to final resolution through a binding arbitration. The case involved a simple intersection auto accident wherein the defendant admitted negligence. Initially, the plaintiff, who was in her 20's, claimed soft tissue injuries, but then added a claim for chronic pain due to post-traumatic migraines. She retained experts for future claims for lost earnings and medication expenses which approached $900,000. Considerable discovery efforts were made to uncover the evidence necessary to show the plaintiff had prior headaches, left appointments early, had no treatment or medication for years at a time, and managed to stay sexually active often appearing at her gynecologist for proegnancy and other tests despite the debilitating pain she was claiming. The attack on the plaintiff's credibility showed her future claims were speculative to the point of ridiculous. She was claiming a loss of future earnings despite having gone on to and enrolled in graduate school.
Success came initially when Anne succeeded in convincing the plaintiff's attorney to agree to resolve the case through binding arbitration with parameters of $25,000 low and $150,000 high. The real victory came after Anne and John defended the case during a 10-hour hearing wherein the plaintiff asked for $2,045,899. She was ultimately awarded only $60,000.
