It is rare to find anyone who has not sustained an injury at some point in their lifetimes. So, will a pre-existing injury affect a car accident claim if a person sustains an injury caused by the actions of another driver?
Here, we want to discuss how insurance carriers treat pre-existing injuries, how they find out about them in the first place, and whether or not this should affect a car accident settlement.
Insurance carriers have one goal in mind when it comes to vehicle accident claims – to limit how much money they payout for a claim. The reality is that insurance carriers are looking out for their bottom line, which means the less they pay, the more money the company makes. This is certainly going to disadvantage those who have legitimate claims.
One of the main ways that insurance carriers try to limit how much money they pay is by bringing up pre-existing injuries an individual may have sustained. Just about everyone has sustained some type of injury at some point in their lifetime. The main types of pre-existing injuries that insurance carriers will try to dig up our:
Even though you may have had a previous injury that required medical treatment, and this may not seem like a big deal, the injury may certainly be a big deal after a vehicle accident occurs if you were seeking compensation from another party. The insurance carriers or at-fault party may dig up these previous injuries and use them to say something along the lines of “It is not the vehicle accident that is causing their pain and suffering, it is these previous injuries.”
But how would the insurance carriers or other parties know about your injuries?
All too often, individuals sign over their complete medical records to insurance carriers after a vehicle collision occurs. Typically, crash victims do this unwittingly by simply signing whatever is put in front of them. We strongly encourage individuals to look at the dates of medical treatment that insurance carriers are looking for. They only need records pertaining to your medical treatment for injuries caused by the vehicle accident.
Pre-existing injuries should not matter when it comes to current car accident claims. It does not matter whether someone has sustained an injury in the past or is currently suffering from an injury caused by a more recent event; anything that happened as a result of the car accident should be compensated if the other driver was at fault. This includes any new injuries that occur as a result of the vehicle accident, as well as any exasperation of existing injuries that happens as a result of the incident. The truth is that new injuries or the exasperation of existing injuries would not have happened had the vehicle accident not occurred.
When courage you to work with a skilled car accident lawyer in Denver who has experience handling these complications. Let your attorney know about any pre-existing injuries you have so that they can formulate a plan for what to do if the other side tries to use these injuries against you.
