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If you have a pre-existing injury or medical condition and are hurt in a car accident, slip and fall, or another type of accident, you may worry that the insurance company will use your medical history against you. You might have chronic lower back pain, arthritis in your knees, or an old shoulder injury. You may have even received treatment for the same body part that was injured.

Having a pre-existing injury does not mean that you cannot pursue a personal injury claim in South Carolina. In fact, South Carolina law recognizes that an accident victim can recover damages even when an accident aggravates an existing condition. Our Simpsonville personal injury attorneys will work to establish what your health was like before the accident, what changed after the accident, and whether the accident caused a new injury or made an existing condition worse.

At Brooks Derrick Accident and Injury Lawyers, we understand that an injured person does not have to be in perfect health before an accident to have a valid personal injury claim. We will fight back against shady insurance company tactics to get you maximum compensation for your injuries. Reach out to our law firm today to talk to a Simpsonville injury lawyer about your claim.

How Insurance Adjusters Use Old Medical Records Against Injury Victims

After an accident, the insurance company may investigate your medical history as part of evaluating your claim. An adjuster may look for references to:

• Previous back or neck pain
• Prior knee or shoulder injuries
• Arthritis or degenerative conditions
• Previous surgeries
• Physical therapy
• Chiropractic treatment
• Earlier accidents
• Prior workers’ compensation claims
• Previous complaints involving the same body part

Even if an insurance adjuster finds an old medical record that shows a pre-existing condition, that doesn’t mean that your current injury was not caused by the accident. Most of us have a few things wrong with us, particularly as we get older. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be hurt in an accident.

Nevertheless, insurance companies may use your old medical records to argue that your symptoms existed before the accident or that your current treatment is simply continuing care for an old problem.  Our job as Simpsonville personal injury attorneys is to push back against these arguments and fight for your right to full compensation.

For example, consider a situation where you occasionally experienced lower back pain before a car crash. You managed the condition with occasional medication and remained active. After a rear-end accident, your back pain becomes far more severe, you begin experiencing new symptoms, and your doctor recommends a course of physical therapy. The insurance company may point to your prior records and claim that you already had back pain.

However, the important question isn’t whether you had back pain to start, but what the accident did to your condition:

• Were you experiencing occasional discomfort before the crash, but constant, disabling pain afterward?
• Did you previously treat your condition conservatively but now require injections or surgery?
• Did new symptoms appear?
• Did your doctor determine that the accident aggravated your underlying condition?

Your attorney will thoroughly investigate the facts of your case, including an analysis of your medical records. They will work to prove that the accident made your condition worse so that you can get the compensation that you deserve for your injuries.

South Carolina’s Eggshell Plaintiff Doctrine

South Carolina recognizes the legal principle commonly referred to as the eggshell plaintiff doctrine or the eggshell skull rule. The basic concept is straightforward: a person cannot avoid responsibility for causing an injury to someone else simply because the victim was more vulnerable to injury than an average person. The name of the rule comes from the idea that if a person with an unusually thin skull were involved in an accident, the at-fault party would be responsible for the full extent of their injuries, even if a person with a typical skull wouldn’t have been hurt as badly.

The way that it works in practice is fairly simple. Imagine that two people are involved in identical car accidents, but one person has a healthy spine, and the other has a degenerative spinal condition that causes pain but hasn’t interfered with their daily activities. If the accident causes the second person’s condition to become substantially worse, the person who caused the accident is responsible for the harm, even if the person with the healthy spine walked away without a back injury.

In other words, a person’s pre-existing vulnerability does not give the at-fault party a pass. South Carolina courts have found that a defendant in a personal injury case may be responsible for the consequences of an injury even when the victim’s pre-existing condition makes the resulting harm more serious than would have occurred to a healthier person. This is important because it means that people do not have to be perfectly healthy to have legal rights after an accident.

However, the eggshell skull rule does not mean that an accident victim automatically receives compensation for every medical problem they have ever experienced. Instead, the focus is on the harm that was either caused or aggravated by the defendant’s negligence. 

For example, if you had chronic knee pain for years and the accident had no effect on that condition, the defendant would not be liable for your pre-existing knee problems. However, if the accident aggravated that condition, resulting in additional pain, treatment, limitations, or disability, you could get compensation for those accident-related consequences.  That is why it is important to establish your baseline condition.

Aggravation of an Existing Condition vs. a New Injury

One of the most important issues in a personal injury case involving a pre-existing condition is whether the accident caused a completely new injury, aggravated an existing injury, or both. Your case may fall into one of the following categories:

1. Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition: An aggravation occurs when an existing condition becomes worse because of an accident. For example, suppose you had mild arthritis in your knee before a crash. You could walk, work, exercise, and perform your normal activities without significant limitations. After the collision, your knee becomes painful and swollen. Your mobility decreases, your doctor orders additional testing, and you may require more extensive treatment.  The accident may have exaggerated your pre-existing condition. The fact that arthritis existed before the accident does not prevent you from seeking compensation for the additional harm caused by the collision.
2. A New Injury: An accident can also cause a new injury to a body part that had previously experienced problems. For example, someone might have occasional back discomfort but suffer a herniated disc in a slip-and-fall accident. Imaging tests could show a new injury or a significant change from the patient’s prior condition. In other situations, an accident may cause a new injury while simultaneously aggravating an existing condition. A person with an old shoulder injury, for example, could suffer a new cartilage tear while also experiencing increased symptoms related to the previous condition. 

Establishing Your Baseline Before the Accident

When a pre-existing condition is involved, one of the most important things that a South Carolina personal injury attorney can do is to establish your baseline health. This describes your condition before the accident. It may include:

• Your level of pain
• Your physical abilities
• Your work activities
• Your recreational activities
• Medications you used
• Medical treatment you received
• Limitations you experienced
• Whether your condition was improving, stable, or worsening

Your attorney can then compare this baseline with your condition after the accident.

For example, imagine that you had occasional back pain, but worked full time, cared for your kids, exercised, and handled normal household tasks before a truck accident. The crash made your back injury worse to the point that you cannot sit for extended periods, have to miss work, require physical therapy, and struggle with ordinary activities. This change from your pre-accident baseline can be important evidence that the accident had a significant impact on your life.

Medical records, employment records, testimony from family, friends, and coworkers, photographs, activity records, and other evidence can be used to show the difference between your pre-accident condition and your post-accident condition. Your Simpsonville personal injury lawyer can gather this evidence to support your claim.

Why Absolute Honesty with Your Doctor Is Critical

If you have a prior injury, do not hide it from your doctor when you seek medical treatment after an accident. You might be tempted to minimize an old injury or pre-existing condition because you are worried that the insurance company will use it against you. However, that strategy can backfire.

Your doctor needs to know about your complete medical history to provide appropriate care. In addition, inconsistencies between your medical records and what you later tell an attorney, insurance adjuster, or court can damage your credibility. This can actually make it much harder to get the compensation that you deserve for your injuries.

You should also be honest with your lawyer. Being honest does not weaken a legitimate claim. Instead, it gives your attorney the opportunity to explain the difference between your pre-existing condition and the harm caused by the new accident. 

An attorney cannot effectively represent you if they don’t know that your prior condition exists. Full disclosure allows your legal team to prepare for the insurance company’s arguments instead of being surprised by them.

Call Derrick Law Office for Trusted Legal Representation in Simpsonville, South Carolina

You don’t have to be perfectly healthy to be entitled to compensation after another person’s negligence causes an accident. Whether you have an old back injury, bad knees, arthritis, a previous surgery, or another medical condition, the important issue isn’t whether you have a pre-existing condition, but how the accident affected your health and daily life. Our law firm can help you get compensation for any aggravation of a pre-existing condition or new injury from the accident.

Brooks Derrick Accident and Injury Lawyers knows that few clients will walk into our office with absolutely no history of medical issues or injuries. We work hard to prove that our clients’ conditions were made worse by the accident, fighting to get them the money that they are entitled to under South Carolina law. Give us a call at 864-531-7765 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a free consultation with a Simpsonville personal injury lawyer.