Claims Reps Mental Impressions, Conclusions and Opinions Protected from Discovery in Dauphin County Post-Koken Decision

 

The Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas recently handed down a discovery decision in the Post-Koken case of Castellano v. Erie Insurance Exchange, No. 2014-CV-9647 (C.P. Dauph. Co. March 23, 2016, Bratton,  J.).

In this case, the Plaintiff sought discovery of unredacted claim notes including the adjuster’s mental impressions, conclusions, evaluations, opinions and strategy.  The Plaintiff argued that she was entitled to know how the insurance carrier “evaluated” her UIM claim.

After reviewing briefs from both parties, hearing argument on the issue and studying the proposed redactions by Erie Insurance in an in camera review, Judge Bruce Bratton issued an Order without Opinion found that the redactions were appropriate and prevented the plaintiff from discovering any additional unredacted claim notes.

Anyone wishing to secure a copy of this Order may contact me at dancummins@comcast.net.

I send thanks to Attorney John Statler of the Lemoyne, PA law office of Johnson, Duffie, Stewart & Weidner for bringing this case to my attention.