PIP provider collects from State Farm for medical services provided to insureds

Community Resources Consultants won a jury verdict for more than  $400,000.00 for medical services provided to injured motor vehicle accident victims insured by State Farm.  State Farm had refused to pay PIP benefits  for case management and rehabilitation services for 15 different injury victims and the claims were consolidated into a single trial.   State Farm appealed the jury verdict, arguing that many of the services were provided more than one year before the subject complaints were filed and therefore were uncollectible under the "one  year back" rule.  The Court of Appeals acknowledged that many of the claimed expenses may have been more than one year old, however, it pointed out that  State Farm's attorneys did not raise the one-year back rule at trial and never placed in evidence the dates necessary to gauge the "staleness" of the claims. Since State Farm had never provided the trial court with either the basis or the opportunity to decide the one-year back issue, it had "invited error" and could not overturn the verdict. Judge Kirsten Kelly was on theCourt of Appeals panel, and not surprisingly, there was a dissent that would have overlooked the insurer's attorneys' errors.