Finding Vital Facts in Medical Records for Insurance Defense Injury Litigation
To unearth important details that can help disprove a plaintiff’s injury claim, medical record review is indispensable. Here are some major considerations in this regard.
The plaintiff’s medical records are important in insurance defense injury litigation because they are very likely to contain information sources beyond mere examination findings diagnoses, and prognoses. Such valuable details can be obtained only via a comprehensive review of the medical notes. As an insurance defense attorney, you need to locate information that will help establish that the damages the plaintiff claims may not have resulted from the particular injury cited in the lawsuit. Let us look at some of the major considerations in this regard.
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Are there inconsistencies? The versions of events given to physicians must be in keeping with other evidence in the case. If there are visible contradictions for example, between what is recorded in the physician notes and what the blood tests say, those contradictions can be used to impeach the witness. Moreover, conflicting facts will surely weaken the trustworthiness of the person testifying.
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Are there any pre-existing conditions? If the claimant is already suffering from some other condition that may limit or have an impact on his/her daily activities, that has to be noted carefully. In such a case, you can always argue and establish that the particular injury mentioned in the lawsuit may not be solely responsible for the damages claimed.