Cincinnati Insurance seeks summary judgment

Circuit Judge Andy Matoesian will hear Cincinnati Insurance Company’s motion for a summary judgment in a class action case at a hearing June 29.

Represented by The Lakin Law Firm of Wood River, Mark Eavenson alleges Cincinnati Insurance only paid part of the claim he filed and accuses the insurance company of using computer software to uniformly reduce benefits that are paid to doctors. The class action suit was filed in October 2003.

A summary judgment is a court order ruling that no factual issues remain to be tried and therefore a cause of action or all causes of action in a complaint can be decided upon certain facts without trial. It is based upon a motion by one of the parties that contend that all necessary factual issues are settled or so one-sided they need not be tried.

Eavenson, a Granite City chiropractor, has filed more than 25 class action suits to date in Madison County. In this suit he claims that prior to treating a Cincinnati-insured patient for personal injuries sustained in a 2001 workplace accident, he had obtained a valid assignment of claim, which was recognized by Cincinnati through its partial payment of the expenses.

Eavenson claims he billed Cincinnati more than $1,000 for the medical treatment which he claims was reasonable for the services provided. Cincinnati allegedly only paid Eavenson part of the claim.

He also claims that biased software used by Cincinnati arbitrarily lowers the cap that does not reflect actual reasonable expenses of practitioners. He claims Cincinnati uses this database knowing it is biased and designed to reduce what are in fact reasonable charges.

03 L 1437