Description: Turkewitz Law Firm
If was a dumb argument when I first heard about it: That a defendant in a personal injury case had a right to “independent medical exams” of the bodies of injured plaintiffs before they were operated on. And if they didn’t get it, they demanded a sanction for “spoliation” of the evidence — the evidence being the body of the injured person.
Back in late 2021, that argument was dumped on its head by the Appellate Division (First Department), as was the argument that the defense medical exam was somehow independent ( The “Independent” Medical Exam is Dead ).
And now the Second Department has likewise dumped on the idea, citing to the First Department’s holding in Gilliam v. UNC Holdings :