Nowadays when you make a injury claim against and insurance company, the claim is put in a database that most of the insurance companies share and have access to. Thus, when you are making a claim in the future, the insurance company can see if you have made prior claims before. Further, this will tell the insurance company the date of the accident, the insurance companies involved, the nature of the accident, the nature of the injuries and so forth. Thus, if you had a prior accident and complained of neck pain in the past, the insurance company in the future will generally know about it. Thus, when clients do not disclose to their doctors about these prior accidents and try to pretend like those prior accidents exist, in most cases this does not work and in all likelihood will be used against them. The shame is that sometimes a prior accident involving the same body part can be used to the injured person’s ADVANTAGE! If the injured victim advises their doctor and gets those prior records and diagnostic tests to the doctor (like x-rays, MRIs and so forth), perhaps that may help to show exactly what injury THIS accident caused and perhaps this could be used to the ADVANTAGE of this accident. By example, if a year prior, the person has an neck injury and the MRI shows a very small bulging disk at a certain level and after the new accident, that same disk has become significantly worse, then there likely would be a strong argument that the accident caused the aggravation of the neck. Thus, it is possible to use the prior accident as a positive instead of trying to hide it and it becoming a negative to the case. How would hiding it become a negative? Because in a court setting when the jury understands that the client did not tell their doctors about a prior and similar injury, they may not like the client for doing that and thus is severely hurts the case.
If you have been in a car accident where you believe the other car was at fault, please call attorney Gary J. Drucker at Drucker Law Offices for a free consultation at 561-483-9199 (Boca Raton Main office) or 954-755-2120 (Coral Springs satellite office), 561-967-3840 (Lake Worth satellite office) or 305-981-1561 (Miami satellite office). Generally, the law firm works on a contingency fee basis, which means that fees are only charged if the law firm recovers money for you. Please call today for a free consultation!
It is important to note that an injury case is unique and should be judged based on its very specific facts. The discussions in this blog, and there is a lot, is intended to be general in nature and should not to be construed as specific for your case, as the slightest difference in the facts of the case could completely change the result. Also, this blog is based on Florida law and the laws of another state and certainly another country could vary drastically from Florida. Please feel free to call with your questions, as I offer a free consultation.
