For plaintiffs attorney J. Paul Vance Jr., his ace-in-the-hole in the workers’ compensation case of former state corrections officer Adam Corcoran were the medical reports: both from Corcoran’s doctor and from the doctor the state’s insurance carrier had picked.

Corcoran had an active life before his injury, according to court pleadings. He’d done a tour with the U.S. military in Iraq, where he had completed 25 parachute jumps. But he was injured after breaking up a fight between several inmates at the Hartford Correctional Center in September 2017.