Before a lawsuit is filed, generally the at fault insurance company would not be entitled to any medical records, including prior medical records. However, in some case, the insurance company has a bona fide need to see them and thus they cannot fully evaluate the case without them. Thus, if your goal is to resolve the case without filing a lawsuit, you may have to provide the insurance company with the prior medical records or give them a medical authorization so they can order them. Interestingly, once a lawsuit is filed in Florida, generally the defendant in a injury lawsuit will be able to subpoena any and all records, relating to the accident or otherwise. Plus, they can ask questions by interrogatory or by deposition and ask you about your prior medical history and then use that information to get other records that may be related to the injury. A defense in an injury case is that the injury is preexisting and that forms the basis for the defendant to be entitled to prior medical records. For example, if you have a herniated disk following a car accident on January 1, 2014 but you had previous treatment to your spine. The defense would be looking for a prior MRI and what it shows. If the prior MRI shows the same herniated disk, then that would help them prove this accident did not cause the herniated disk but maybe just aggravated it.
