If you are injured in a car accident, and the other driver tries to blame the crash on your pre-existing condition, don’t worry. Attorney Herbert F. Lawrence is here to help. In this video, he explains what a pre-existing condition is and how it can impact your car accident case.
Pre-Existing Condition in a Car Accident Case
The term “pre-existing condition” can be used loosely in personal injury claims. Simply put, a pre-existing ailment is one the injured party previously had before the accident that resulted in their most recent damage. One of the most typical arguments used by insurance companies to reject or undervalue a personal injury claim is the existence of a pre-existing condition.
In an interview by Michael Levites from JurisQ Legal Network, personal injury attorney Herbert F. Lawrence sheds more light on the subject.
What impact do pre-existing conditions have on personal injury claims, then?
The myth that the majority of people are in perfect health before an accident is one that many insurance firms mislead injured individuals to believe. Simply put, that is untrue. Whether it’s a car accident, a slip and fall, or a case of medical negligence, almost everyone hurt in a personal injury incident has some sort of underlying health issue.
In many cases, an insurance provider will blame this underlying medical condition for the harm rather than the collision. According to personal injury law, the party at fault is not liable for an injury that already existed prior to the accident and was untouched by it. The insurance company is able to drastically reduce (or completely prevent) paying you reimbursement for your personal injury by disputing that the injury was brought on by the accident.
However, a crucial distinction needs to be drawn. It’s true that as an accident victim, you typically aren’t entitled for compensation for injuries that present before the accident. However, you might be entitled to compensation if the accident made your pre-existing ailments worse.
What do experts say?
Here’s what personal injury attorney Herbert Lawrence had to say when asked, how personal injury lawyers argue pre-existing medical condition:
“Defense carriers representing insurance companies basically have certain doctors that they use all the time. And I would suggest to you that the reason they hire these doctors is that these doctors testify in a manner and in a substance that they desire, which basically minimizes the injury of the person known as the plaintiff.
We, plaintiffs’ attorneys don’t necessarily have that advantage. When a person comes to us many times they come to us having already treated with a doctor.”
He further drew from his experience to share, “The doctor’s opinion is that there was a pre-existing injury and that the pre-existing injury was not worsened, then there would be no case. Right? So too, to have a case of plaintiff with a prior injury that is being made worse exacerbated.
There has to be a doctor who will come in to testify that in fact, the original injury is whatever it was, but that the accident causally related, a substantial increase or an increase in debilitation. And then it’s up to the jury to decide who is more credible, the treating doctor who is coming in and testifying that, that the injury was exacerbated, made worse, or the insurance Doctor who will in all probability testify that even if it was made worse, it’s now better and there’s nothing there.”
You can check out the full interview by Michael Levites and catch vital information straight from the attorneys on JurisQ.com.