You're 47 years old, stopped in traffic on the Belt Parkway near Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, when an SUV slams into you from behind. Within days, pain shoots from your neck down your arm, and an MRI shows a herniated disc at C5-C6 pressing on a nerve root. Then the insurance company's letter arrives: their radiologist reviewed your films and concluded your injury is nothing more than "chronic degenerative disc disease consistent with the patient's age." In plain English, they're s