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Many Georgians are struggling with injuries, whether suffered at work or home. They wake up in pain and take medication to get through the day. What happens if you have a pre-existing injury and get involved in an accident? Generally, you can still receive compensation if the accident aggravated the pre-existing injury—meaning, the accident made your injury worse. It’s okay if you are confused about your legal rights. Some insurance adjusters wrongly claim you cannot receive any compensation in a personal injury claim with a pre-existing condition, but that’s simply not true. What matters is if the accident made your injury worse. Call Moffitt Law, LLC. A Carrollton personal injury lawyer can meet for a personalized consultation and discuss what steps to take.
Why a Personal Injury Claim with a Pre-Existing Condition is Challenging
There’s no question it’s harder to win a personal injury case if you have a pre-existing injury. Here are some common situations:
- You suffer a shoulder injury at work and then get into a car accident which twists your body around. You feel even more pain in your shoulder where the seatbelt cuts into your joint.
- You are recovering from one concussion you suffered at home when, six months later, you slip and fall in the grocery store and strike your head on the ground, causing a second concussion. Your symptoms become much worse.
- You have back pain but can’t identify the cause. Three months later you are hit by a car while riding your bicycle. You now feel more intense back pain.
- You suffer from osteoporosis, which is a weakening of the bones. When you fall in a store, your hip shatters from the impact.
In each of these examples, you have suffered from a pre-existing injury or condition before an accident. Now you claim your injury was made worse.
Here’s the problem: the defendant or insurance agency will try to claim all your pain is the result of your initial injury. So you might claim your shoulder feels worse after a crash, but the driver who hit you will claim that all your pain stems from the initial, pre-existing injury.
They will claim they don’t owe you a penny.
Ultimately, an accident victim has the responsibility of coming forward with evidence against the defendant. You need to show how they are responsible for an aggravated pre-existing injury.
How Defendants Find Out About Pre-Existing Injuries
There are a couple of ways they can find out you suffer from a medical condition:
- They ask you about any pre-existing injuries. They could send a written interrogatory, or they ask in a deposition. You must be truthful when answering under oath.
- They gain access to your medical records. They might demand that you turn over all medical records for the past 10 years or so. Their staff comb through the records to find pre-existing conditions.
- There exists independent evidence of an accident. For example, you could have been in a prior car accident, and you reported it to the state, as required by law. A defendant’s insurer can find out about this incident.
Be honest with your attorney. It’s better to let your lawyer know you are struggling with a pre-existing injury or condition than for us to be blindsided.
How We Win These Cases
Under the law, you can receive compensation if the defendant aggravated your pre-existing injury or caused a new one. You are also entitled to compensation even if you have a condition that makes you vulnerable to injury.
We typically rely on medical evidence to show that an accident made your pre-existing injury much worse. For example, we can compare X-rays or MRI scans to show how you have suffered more significant bodily injury. Sometimes we rely on medical experts to argue that a traumatic accident like a motor vehicle collision or fall made your injury worse.
Call Moffitt Law, LLC, Today
Our firm is eager to learn more about how an accident has aggravated a pre-existing injury or condition. We can begin reviewing your medical records and compiling evidence to show how the most recent accident is the real source of most of your pain and discomfort.
We can then collate all this evidence and present it in a forceful way when negotiating for compensation. Call our firm to speak with a Carrollton personal injury attorney at our office for a free consultation.
