Colodny Fass Litigators Successfully Defeat High-Stakes Class Action
Sep 11, 2013
Court Rules PIP Claim Benefits Due Under Assignment of Benefits Not Appropriately Resolved on a Class-Wide Basis
Colodny Fass litigators Maria Abate and Amy Koltnow successfully defeated a state-wide class action brought by a proposed class of medical providers who received an assignment of personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits from insureds under an automobile policy. The court held that claims for PIP benefits due to any medical provider under an assignment of benefits are not appropriately resolved on a class-wide basis, since “there must always be an individualized determination of whether the services rendered were reasonable, related and necessary.”
Our litigators pursued an aggressive stance to combat class certification asserting that the class action lawsuit was attorney-driven, and lacked merit. The trial judge took heed finding that the plaintiff’s case was woefully deficient and the best evidence the plaintiff could muster in warranting the class action status was to call a “fellow litigator” to testify that there must be “many” other claims out there. The final blow came when the court held the class representative and its counsel were “inadequate.”
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