You were in a car accident last week, and your back is killing you. But you’ve had back problems for years. Now you’re worried that your pre-existing condition means you can’t pursue a claim, or worse, that bringing up your medical history will destroy your case. So you’re considering not mentioning it at all.
This fear is understandable but misplaced. Pre-existing injuries don’t automatically disqualify you from compensation, and hiding them from your attorney almost always backfires. Our friends at Hickey & Turim, S.C. discuss how many accident victims have some prior medical history. A slip and fall lawyer needs to know about your complete medical background to build the strongest possible case and prevent insurance companies from using your history against you.
Pre-Existing Conditions Don’t Bar Recovery
Having previous injuries or medical conditions doesn’t prevent you from recovering compensation for new injuries or aggravation of existing conditions. The law recognizes that you deserve compensation when an accident makes your condition worse, even if you weren’t perfectly healthy before the crash.
The legal principle is simple. You take the plaintiff as you find them. This is sometimes called the “eggshell plaintiff” rule. If someone with a fragile spine gets rear-ended and suffers more severe injuries than a healthier person would, the at-fault driver is still responsible for all resulting damages.
Your claim focuses on how the accident changed your condition. Were you managing your back pain effectively before the crash? Could you work, exercise, and live normally? If the accident significantly worsened your symptoms, caused new limitations, or required additional treatment you didn’t need before, you have a valid claim for those changes.
What Insurance Companies Will Do With Your Medical History
Insurance adjusters will absolutely search for pre-existing conditions to reduce what they pay. They’ll request your complete medical records going back years, looking for any mention of symptoms similar to what you’re claiming from the accident.
According to principles established in personal injury law, defendants are liable only for injuries they cause or aggravate, not for conditions that existed independently. Insurance companies stretch this concept, arguing that any prior treatment means your current problems aren’t accident-related.
Their doctors will review your records looking for opportunities to blame your current symptoms on pre-existing conditions. Had occasional lower back pain five years ago? They’ll claim your current herniated disc was going to happen anyway. Saw a chiropractor once for neck stiffness? They’ll argue your whiplash isn’t from their insured’s negligence.
Why Hiding Your Medical History Backfires
When you conceal pre-existing conditions and insurance companies discover them during records review, you’ve handed them ammunition. They’ll argue you’re dishonest and question everything about your claim. Juries don’t trust plaintiffs who hide medical history, and judges view it unfavorably too.
Insurance defense attorneys love catching plaintiffs in inconsistencies about their medical background. They’ll use it to impeach your credibility at deposition and trial. Once they establish you weren’t truthful about your history, convincing anyone about the accident’s impact becomes nearly impossible.
More importantly, your own attorney needs accurate information to develop proper case strategy. Surprises during litigation hurt your case and limit your lawyer’s ability to handle problems effectively.
How To Discuss Pre-Existing Conditions With Your Attorney
Tell your attorney everything about your medical history at your initial consultation. This includes conditions you think might be irrelevant. Let your lawyer decide what matters and what doesn’t.
Be specific about your condition before the accident:
- What symptoms did you experience regularly?
- How often did you seek treatment?
- What medications were you taking?
- What activities could you do without problems?
- Were you working full time without restrictions?
- Had your condition been stable or worsening?
Then explain exactly how the accident changed things. Did new symptoms appear? Did old symptoms become much worse? Do you need treatment you didn’t require before? Are activities you could do easily now impossible or painful?
The contrast between your pre-accident condition and post-accident condition is what your claim addresses. Clear documentation of this difference is how you prove the accident caused compensable harm.
Documenting The Aggravation Of Pre-Existing Conditions
Medical records need to clearly distinguish between your baseline condition and accident-related changes. Your doctors should document that you were stable before the accident and that the accident caused acute aggravation requiring new or increased treatment.
Make sure healthcare providers understand your complete history. If you had manageable back pain before but now need surgery, your surgeon needs to know both facts. They can then properly attribute the need for surgery to the accident rather than natural progression of your pre-existing condition.
Diagnostic imaging that shows new damage helps tremendously. If you had an MRI two years ago showing mild disc degeneration, and a new MRI after the accident shows acute herniation, that’s powerful evidence the accident caused new injury. The old MRI becomes helpful rather than harmful because it establishes a baseline for comparison.
The Difference Between Pre-Existing And Causally Related
Insurance companies often confuse these concepts deliberately. Just because you had back pain before doesn’t mean your current back problems are pre-existing in the legal sense. If the accident caused distinct new injuries or significantly worsened your condition, those changes are causally related to the accident.
You might have had degenerative disc disease that caused occasional discomfort managed with over-the-counter medication. After the accident, you have constant pain requiring prescription medication, injections, and possibly surgery. The degenerative condition existed, but the accident transformed it from a minor annoyance into a disabling problem.
This aggravation creates liability. The at-fault party must compensate you for making your condition substantially worse, even if they can’t be blamed for the underlying condition itself.
How Damages Get Calculated With Prior Injuries
Your compensation should reflect the difference between your pre-accident and post-accident condition. If you could work full time before and now you can’t, lost wages from that inability are compensable. If you needed minimal treatment before and now require ongoing care, those new medical expenses are recoverable.
Past medical history might reduce some damage categories. If you already had limited range of motion before the accident, your claim for that limitation isn’t as strong. But if the accident reduced your range of motion further or made existing limitations more painful and problematic, you recover for that worsening.
Pain and suffering damages focus on how the accident changed your quality of life. The relevant comparison is your life immediately before the accident versus your life afterward. If the accident transformed your manageable condition into something severely limiting, that transformation has significant value.
Common Pre-Existing Conditions In Accident Cases
Certain pre-existing conditions appear frequently in personal injury cases. Understanding how each typically affects claims helps set realistic expectations.
Arthritis or Degenerative Disc Disease: These age-related conditions affect most adults eventually. They don’t prevent recovery when accidents cause acute injuries to already-degenerating joints or discs. Medical evidence should show acceleration of degeneration or acute trauma distinct from natural progression.
Prior Accidents or Injuries: Previous accidents don’t bar claims for new ones. The key is distinguishing old injuries from new ones and showing you’d recovered from prior incidents before this accident occurred. Gaps in treatment history help demonstrate prior resolution.
Chronic Pain Conditions: Fibromyalgia, chronic regional pain syndrome, and similar conditions complicate claims because symptoms overlap with accident injuries. Detailed documentation of symptom changes and specific new areas of pain helps establish accident causation.
Mental Health History: Prior depression, anxiety, or PTSD doesn’t prevent claims for emotional distress from accidents. Evidence should show how the accident caused distinct worsening, new symptoms, or required different treatment approaches.
When Prior Injuries Actually Help Your Case
Sometimes pre-existing conditions actually strengthen claims. If you successfully managed a chronic condition for years, then an accident disrupts that management, it proves the accident’s significant impact. You demonstrated you could function well despite your baseline condition until the negligent defendant interfered.
Prior imaging or medical evaluations establish objective baselines showing exactly what changed after the accident. Without those records, insurance companies argue your current condition existed all along. With them, you prove the accident caused specific new damage.
Your medical compliance history demonstrates credibility. If you consistently followed treatment recommendations for your pre-existing condition, it shows you’re responsible about healthcare and that current treatment relates to genuine accident injuries, not manipulation for financial gain.
Being Honest Protects Your Recovery
Complete honesty about your medical history with your attorney allows proper case preparation. Your lawyer can anticipate defense arguments, gather evidence distinguishing new injuries from old conditions, and present your case accurately from the start.
Insurance companies will discover your medical history regardless of what you tell your lawyer. Medical record authorizations in litigation provide access to complete treatment histories. The only question is whether your legal team knew about this information in advance and prepared to address it, or gets blindsided by it during the case.
Pre-existing injuries don’t prevent fair compensation when accidents cause new harm or worsen existing conditions. What matters is proving how the accident changed your life, documenting the aggravation properly, and presenting your case honestly from the beginning. If you’re worried about how your medical history affects your accident claim, discussing it openly with an attorney who understands how to handle these cases protects your ability to recover the compensation you deserve for the harm you’ve actually suffered.