The question of whether or not a Plaintiff's Social Security Disability Application is discoverable in personal injury actions, and if so, how much, has been debated by both Plaintiff's and theDefense bar alike. A Plaintiff's Social Security Disability file often contains information such as: statements by the Plaintiff about how they were injured; descriptions of the injuries sustained in an accident; independent medical examinations and conclusions about the Plaintiff's prognosis; and determinations as to the amount of social security benefits awarded over a set timeframe. Defense Attorneys would clearly like to posses all of this information for their analysis, but just how much of it is actually discoverable under Connecticut Practice?

The analysis of this issue begins with the Connecticut Supreme Court's ruling in Vitti v. Allstate, 245 Conn. 169 (1998). In Vitti, the Court held that a Defendant can be credited with any payments for disability paid to an insured by the Social Security Administration. Id. However, what the Connecticut Supreme Court's holding in Vitti left unresolved is whether Defense Attorneys are entitled to the Plaintiff's entire social security file or merely just the information pertaining to the amount of disability benefits that were received by the Plaintiff. Since the Supreme Court's 1998 decision in Vitti, two Superior Court cases have attempted to resolve this issue.

In Caldwell v. Shelby Ins. Co., 1998 Conn. Super.LEXIS 2905 (Conn. Super. Ct. Oct. 19, 1998) the Superior Court addressed a situation where the Defendant insurance company filed a motion to compel the Social Security Administration to release all records and files that contained personal information contained in the Plaintiff's Social Security Disability file. The court held that the Defendant was entitled only to the disclosure of the benefits awarded by the Social Security Administration. Id. at *3. However, the court's prohibition was not absolute as the court stated that Plaintiff's should not be harassed to disclose of all of the details of a social security disability file, where most of the details "will have no bearing on [the] case." Id. at *2.

A few years later in Woodsworth v. Viola, 2000 WL992150 (Conn. Super. Ct. June 29, 2000), another Superior Court permitted an in camera review of Plaintiff's entire Social Security Disability file. In Woodsworth, the Plaintiff claimed that she fell in the parking lot of a shopping center. Id. In the case, the Plaintiff made an issue of the Plaintiff's pre-accident condition as an element to the Plaintiff's claim for damages. The court determined that since the Plaintiff was receiving benefits at the time, the Plaintiff's Social Security file potentially contained information regarding the Plaintiff's pre-existing medical condition. Therefore, the court held that the Plaintiff's Social Security records were reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. The court went on to limit its decision by stating that if the Plaintiff withdrew the loss of wages claim as an element of damages, the social security records would not need to be disclosed because they would no longer be reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

Until a higher court sets forth a definitive ruling on this issue, it remains unclear as to whether the Defendant is entitled, as of right, to the Plaintiff's entire Social Security Disability file. With that said, the decisions in Caldwell and Woodsworth are not entirely inconsistent. A close reading of those two cases indicates that a court can order the disclosure of the entirety of the Plaintiff's Social Security file if it can be shown that the information contained in the file would be reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. In Caldwell, the court alluded to the fact that social security records may be required to be disclosed when they will have some "bearing on the case." Arguably, such a case arose in Woodsworth, where the court determined that the Plaintiff's Social Security records potentially contained evidence relevant to the Plaintiff's pre-existing medical condition. However, absent a clear and cohesive decision from a higher court, the issue of whether a Plaintiff must disclose the entirety of their Social Security Disability will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, Plaintiffs should never blindly hand over their Social Security Disability file without further scrutiny, and Defendants should not expect they have an absolute right to such information.