If you have been injured in a car accident, it may not have been the first time that an injury or other medical condition sent you to a doctor for treatment. After all, most of us have or will experience aches and pains in our life that can be caused by a wide variety of conditions and circumstances. Unfortunately, an insurance company may try to use your medical history against you if you bring a personal injury claim for harm suffered in an accident caused by their insured. Do not despair. It is often standard practice for an insurance company to try such tricks, but it does not necessarily present an insurmountable hurdle to recovering full and fair compensation for your accident injuries.
What Pre-existing Conditions Can Mean for Your Personal Injury Claim
If you have previously complained of certain pains or medical issues and may have even sought medical treatment for such things, an insurance company is likely to uncover this when combing through your medical records. The insurance company may then, in turn, claim that your accident injuries were actually pre-existing in nature and that the harm you suffered was not caused by the accident but by conditions you already suffered from. Do not be intimidated by such a claim.
Let us be clear that an accident victim is entitled to recover compensation for all harm suffered due to the accident. This means new injuries are compensable. It also means that exacerbation of previous injuries and conditions is also compensable. While treatment for pre-existing injuries will not be covered, to the extent that such conditions may have been made worse by the accident, you are legally entitled to compensation for that.
Furthermore, it should be stated that even if your pre-existing medical conditions made your accident injuries more likely, your injuries are still compensable in your personal injury claim. The Eggshell Doctrine makes it clear that the defendant takes the plaintiff as he or she finds him or her. That means that even if a preexisting condition makes a person more susceptible to injury than someone else, the harm that person suffers due to the accident is still compensable.
In any event, insurance companies persist in trying to use preexisting conditions to undermine or even deny claims. Medical evidence can become even more critical in such cases. Be clear with your doctor about your symptoms after the accident and how they differ from any symptoms you may have lived with prior to the accident. Keep a journal of how you feel after the accident as well as pain and other symptoms you may be experiencing. Receive continuous medical treatment and comply with doctor recommendations for treatment. This will all work to strengthen your personal injury claim as well as help differentiate the harm you suffered due to the accident from the symptoms you have previously experienced.
Kentucky Personal Injury Attorney
At Dickman Law, we work tirelessly to help ensure insurance companies are not let off the hook for paying our clients what they rightfully deserve. Contact us today.
Posted in: Personal Injury