TENTATIVE ORDER

Defendant Sarah Beaumont Green’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff, Roxana Cortez, to Submit to an Orthopedic Independent Medical Examination is DENIED without prejudice.

Defendant Sarah Beaumont Green to give notice.

REASONING

Defendant Sarah Beaumont Green (“Defendant”) moves the Court for an order compelling Plaintiff Roxana Cortez (“Plaintiff”) to attend her Independent Medical Examination (“IME”) with orthopedic physician Richard Nussbaum, M.D. on the ground that Plaintiff failed to appear for a properly noticed IME while seeking recovery for personal injuries. 

Code of Civil Procedure section 2032.220 provides as follows:

(a) (a) In any case in which a plaintiff is seeking recovery for personal injuries, any defendant may demand one physical examination of the plaintiff, if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

(1) The examination does not include any diagnostic test or procedure that is painful, protracted, or intrusive.

(2) The examination is conducted at a location within 75 miles of the residence of the examinee.

Further, “[a] demand under subdivision (a) shall specify the time, place, manner, conditions, scope, and nature of the examination, as well as the identity and the specialty, if any, of the physician who will perform the examination.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 2032.220, subd. (c).)

This motion includes a meet and confer declaration (Mot., Mersereau Decl. ¶¶ 6-13), and Defendant identified the time and place, as well as the identity and specialty of the person who will perform the examination (Mot., Mersereau Decl. ¶ 7, Ex. C). However, Defendant fails to describe the manner, conditions, scope, and nature of the examination in either the demand for IME or the present motion, stating only that the “examination will be conducted for the purpose of determining the nature and extent of Plaintiff’s physical injuries sustained as a result of the incident, if any, which is the subject of this litigation,” it “will consist of taking a medical history, conducting a medical examination, and/or other diagnostic testing and/or procedures as may be deemed necessary by the examining doctor,” “[t]he examination will not include any diagnostic tests that are painful, protracted, or intrusive,” and “[a] history will be taken of Plaintiff’s alleged injuries.” (Ibid.) This does not describe the specific tests to be conducted during the IME in a way that puts Plaintiff on notice of the testing to which she is submitting. Given that Defendant has also sought to require Plaintiff to submit to a neurology IME and neuropsychology IME, Defendant cannot simply state the specialty of the doctor and that the examination will not be invasive. Put simply, a better description of the IME is required. For that reason, Defendant Sarah Beaumont Green’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff, Roxana Cortez, to Submit to an Orthopedic Independent Medical Examination is DENIED without prejudice.