The Role of Forensics in Personal Injury Litigation
Forensic panel investigating an injury case utilize medical peer review to ensure investigative diligence, the required oversight and guidance necessary.
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Personal injury cases that involve injury and incapacity to work draw evidence from forensic examination by expert medical practitioners. Medical records review and medical review services are important components in these cases wherein the expert medical knowledge of forensic experts is applied to legal problems and legal proceedings. Forensic injury biomechanics is the deciding factor in many personal injury, wrongful death, products and premises liability, and criminal cases. Forensic experts evaluate the level of injury and whether there is a valid claim. The interpretation and classification of injuries provided by the forensic expert provides a clear insight into how those injuries were caused. Many of the claims made in a lawsuit involving personal injury such as whether the injured person was/is able to work, whether the injury could have happened as described in the claim, who/what is responsible for the injury, issues involving medical insurance and additional medical costs, can be confirmed by a medical expert. Valuable Insight Provided by Forensic Medical Experts Forensic experts provide details regarding: •
The type and nature of injury
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Location of the injury
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Associated functional damage
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Photos and body diagrams to illustrate their findings.
They record both acute findings as well as chronic findings, i.e. long term as well as short term evidence. They undertake evaluation, examination, and treatment of both physical injuries and psychological effects when examining injured victims. How is the causal connection established? What are the legal principles involved in this? Two basic principles exist. •
The perpetrator of the injury is only liable to the injured person for those injuries caused by the former’s negligent act. The obligation to compensate arises from the fact that the defendant injured the plaintiff by his/her negligent act.
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Once it is established that the defendant’s negligent act resulted in the plaintiff’s injuries, the former’s responsibility is limited to compensating the plaintiff only for those losses that resulted from the injuries. The defendant has the obligation to restore the plaintiff to his/her pre-accident state as much as this is possible via payment of money. What is important to note is that the plaintiff should not be left in a worse
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position, and the defendant is not required to put the plaintiff in a better position than he/she would have been if the accident had not occurred. The Emotional Angle in a Personal Injury Case Forensic cases involving emotional injuries are more complicated to evaluate and require deep understanding of the effects of stress, evaluation of function, trauma, and malingering. In many cases, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition identified. The expert psychiatrist called to evaluate the injury will prepare a custom evaluation that is specific to the unique characteristics of each case. This will help assess the emotional injury, if any, that has been caused to the victim or plaintiff. A forensic psychiatric evaluation would involve interviews with the victim (plaintiff) as well as the alleged perpetrator (defendant in the case), and collateral witnesses to the events. Typically, the psychiatrist or the forensic panel consulted in emotional injury cases will ascertain the following. •
The actual nature of the emotional injury focusing on the symptoms first, and then the diagnosis
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What the actual causation of the identified symptoms is, and whether that factor triggered the litigation. The idea is to find out whether there is any other stressor such as health, family, financial, relationship and so on that may be responsible for the emotional trauma.
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What is the condition of the injured person at present both emotionally and functionally?
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What is the injured person’s prognosis? If that prognosis is poor or uncertain, what other treatments/interventions may be needed to improve that prognosis?
A forensic psychiatric evaluation is very important because it brings to light many important aspects relevant to the personal injury case such as any previously existing serious psychiatric illness, any other significant source of injury, earlier exploitative litigation, and financial problems. Psychiatry examinations being more complicated and challenging than physical examinations, reliable information provided by family members and close friends and acquaintances is of great value to the forensic expert. Personal interaction with therapists who have treated the injured person earlier can also help because he/she will have many valuable opinions to share, which may not emerge easily from the medical records.
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In personal injury cases that may not have significant physical trace, and are triggered by charges and denials on the part of the plaintiffs and defendants, psychiatric evaluation is very important. To find answers to the challenging questions, considerable investigative diligence is necessary. Typically, when a forensic panel is employed to investigate a personal injury case, the team utilizes medical peer review to ensure this and provide the required oversight and guidance necessary. Forensics Play an Important Role in Personal Injury Litigation An injury is defined as the physical or mental impairment of the plaintiff whereas loss refers to the pecuniary or non-pecuniary consequences of that impairment. Forensic examiners are required to examine the injured person and provide a clear answer regarding what is causing their symptoms. Diagnostic labels such as for instance whiplash injury or post-traumatic stress disorder will not be enough. The most likely model of the plaintiff’s illness itself and the mechanisms of the illness must be presented as explicitly as possible so that the negligent act can be placed within that framework. What is important is how the forensic expert can apply medical principles to the explanation of the adopted models in the context of personal injury cases. The right conclusions are important when it comes to ensuring the justice and compensation due to the injured person.
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(800) 670 2809