How Does A Pre-Existing Medical Condition Effect A New Accident Lawsuit?

How does a previous medical condition factor in when you have an accident and re-injury the same thing, or the ongoing medical issue that you have been having gets worse as a result?

These are questions that personal injury lawyers have to deal with. Your defense attorney will most often take the position that if your previous condition was made worse – that the person causing the accident is responsible. Above all, when consulting with a lawyer about any matter, it is best to be totally honest and open with all information. It is better that your own representation knows exactly what they are dealing with and that there will be no surprises when the other side discovers medical records or other items that are in conflict with the case presented to date.

This video is a conversation between law partners Peter Hart and Stephen Karp relating to this topic.

Video Transcript:

>>>STEPHEN KARP: The law says you take the victim as you find them, and that means that if somebody has a previous back problem and they’re in a car accident and that problem is made worse – yes they can be compensated.

>>>PETER HART: Well we’ve always heard this expression – Egg Shell Plaintiff!

>>>STEPHEN KARP: When you buy eggs you look inside the box – even though the box looks good – you look inside the box to see if the eggs are cracked – because the box can be good but inside the eggs can be cracked. If someone typically has back pain and they have been treated in the past but they’re in this accident and they now have a herniated disc of their back becomes so much worst that they need surgery, then the tort fees for the person that hit them – the person responsible for the accident – would be responsible, but it also gets tough, the defense hires a doctor who says, “Oh, that person would have needed surgery anyway!”

>>>PETER HART: When you’re building a case like that, you yourself look at the previous history for your client?

>>>STEPHEN KARP: You always ask for it, you ask the client to be honest with you because if you’re in a lawsuit they will get your old medical records – you deal with it.

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