Why Medical Records Matter in a Truck Wreck Injury Case

Medical records are important in any personal injury case following a collision with a commercial motor vehicle.

We know you value your privacy, and it can feel invasive to release your medical history to strangers. However, when you make a personal injury claim, you waive the confidential status of certain medical records.

This article will explain why your medical records are important and how they will be used.

Will My Personal Injury Lawyer Need to See My Medical Records?

If you’re suing a truck driver, motor carrier or other negligent entity or person, you’ll need evidence to back your claim. Medical records can help document the injuries you sustained in the crash.

Your medical history will serve a few purposes throughout your lawsuit’s progression:

• Prove that you were injured
• Confirm that your injuries resulted from this accident
• Establish the severity of your injuries
• Confirm the aggravation of pre-existing conditions
• Show how your injuries have impacted your daily life
• Look forward to future medical treatment needed as a result of the crash

As the plaintiff, you have the burden of proof. This means your attorney must provide evidence proving the defendant (the party or parties you’re suing) caused the injury. Medical records are crucial here because they can establish whether an injury occurred before or after a wreck, how severe it is, and to what extent it will affect a client’s life.

These records, combined with medical experts’ testimonies, can strengthen your case. They can prove that your injuries were a direct result of negligence.

Can Lawyers See My Medical History Without My Permission?

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), your information as a patient is protected. Most times, your explicit consent is required in order for others to access your medical records.

“Indiana Code Title 16 outlines the conditions for releasing health records, requiring a valid, written, and signed authorization that specifies the information to be disclosed, the purpose, and the recipient,” LegalClarity reports.

The HIPPA release form you’ll sign as a client will specify:

• Which protected health information can be used and disclosed
• Why the information is being used or disclosed
• To whom the information is being disclosed
• When the authorization will expire and lose its validity

As mentioned earlier, if you are making a personal injury claim, you are putting your physical wellbeing into question. You waive the privilege that normally exists for any medical records that are historically or causally related to the injury or conduct in question. This doesn’t mean the lawyers can look at medical records that are completely unrelated to the issue in the case.

There are exceptions in Indiana wherein your protected health information may be disclosed without your authorization. This information can be released in compliance with court orders, subpoenas, or law enforcement.

This may occur if a defense attorney makes a request for production of documents to a non-party. If they serve this request to a hospital or physician’s office where you’ve been treated, they can access your medical records under HIPAA exceptions. However, they must notify your lawyer in advance so they can object if appropriate.

At Craig, Kelley & Faultless, our paralegals and attorneys make the process as smooth as possible. In the discovery phase, we retrieve all necessary information and provide it to the defense. And, because your health may change over the course of your case, we will supplement the documents over time to ensure the history is comprehensive.

We will object to the release of sensitive records that have nothing to do with your injuries.

What Type of Medical Records Will My Lawyer See?

Because we will need your comprehensive medical history, we’ll go through several types of medical records. Some clients have more than others, depending on their health and injury record.

Your legal team may review:

• Annual physical examinations
• Vaccinations and prescriptions
• Blood tests, biopsies, screenings
• Vision, hearing, dental exams
• Procedures and surgeries
• X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds and other imaging
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation reports
• Discharge summaries and follow-up instructions

This includes physicians’ notes. We will also retrieve your medical bills and expense reports.

We want you to feel comfortable throughout this process, so though we’ll need to collect a vast medical history, there are some documents we can exclude in certain cases.

For example, if you have suffered physical injuries, we’ll need to report your physical health history. However, if you are not claiming mental distress or emotional trauma as a result of the crash, it won’t be necessary for us to release your mental health counseling records to the defense.

Will My Prior Medical History Affect My Personal Injury Case?

An experienced, qualified personal injury attorney will be transparent with you through every step of the process. This communication allows you, the client, to understand what’s important and feel more comfortable.

Paralegal Brooke Jones, a Craig, Kelley & Faultless employee who works on the “discovery” portion of cases, joined episode 51 of my podcast to discuss this topic.

Interrogatories are one part of discovery, wherein your attorney’s team will work with you and ask questions to gather information that’s relevant to your case. Injuries, treatment and medical history are a big part of this. Brooke said she speaks with clients to get around 10 to 15 years of prior medical history.

A lot of people think this isn’t necessary for their case — but it is.

“If I was hurt, the last thing I would want is people digging into my medical history,” Brooke said. “But unfortunately, we do have the burden of proof. I would rather give [the defense] everything that they ask for, so it doesn’t look like we’re trying to hide anything.”

After discovery is complete, the client will sign it under penalty of perjury. It’s better to give too much information than to skip over something and look like you’re hiding it. Let’s look at an example.

Say you went to the doctor about eight years ago complaining of neck pain. Maybe you never received treatment, and the issue went away, and you forgot about it. However, the episode of neck pain remains in your medical records.

Eight years later, you’re struck by a semi tractor-trailer and suffer a neck injury. In the discovery phase, you report that you’ve never had neck pain and that, before the wreck, you did not have issues with your neck. You aren’t trying to hide anything.

However, if the defense looks at your records and sees the neck pain you reported eight years ago, it gives them a reason to claim your recent neck injury wasn’t fully caused by the crash.

“It looks like you’re lying about something that you’re not lying about,” Brooke said. “And that can ruin your case.”

Sometimes, disclosing your medical history benefits your case. If you have had neck problems in the past, and a wreck worsens that issue, you are entitled to compensation for the aggravation of a pre-existing condition.

What matters here is how you were before the wreck versus how you are after. That is what medical records help us determine.

Putting it Into Context: Medical Experts and Testimonies

As described above, your medical history plays a few key roles in your injury case. It can prove you were injured and the severity of those injuries (X-ray scans showing a broken bone, for example). The dates, times and locations of the reports show that your injuries resulted from the crash in question.

These records can also prove to the defense that the injuries you suffered from the wreck have a lasting impact on your life. Some crash survivors face lifelong disability, experience chronic pain, or need psychiatric care for PTSD. Your records solidify this.

A good personal injury attorney who handles commercial motor vehicle collision cases knows that medical reports alone are not enough to make your case airtight.

Medical illustrations can be used as demonstrative evidence, conveying an injury’s severity, treatment, and impact. These may include anatomical diagrams to help visualize an injury or show necessary surgical procedures. Other medical illustrations depict the mechanism of an injury, showing how the force of an accident caused a specific injury.

When a semi wreck or other personal injury case goes to trial, these medical illustrations, combined with medical testimony, have a powerful effect on jurors. The evidence helps them understand how and why an injury occurred, as well as how it will affect the victim’s life.

A qualified personal injury attorney can help you secure the compensation you deserve, but they won’t get far without the help of other experts. Your lawyer should bring in medical experts and others to make your case as well-rounded, detailed and structured as possible.

Can I Sue If a Semi Hits Me?

If a negligent semi-truck driver causes a wreck and injures you, a truck accident lawyer can help negotiate with insurance companies and secure financial compensation to help you recover.

A wide range of injuries can result from commercial motor vehicle accidents. Some wounds heal after a few months, while others leave victims permanently altered. No one deserves to be catastrophically injured on our roadways.

The experienced truck wreck attorneys at Craig, Kelley & Faultless have the resources and knowledge to help you. Our attorneys are licensed to practice in states across the country, including Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Iowa.

Our offices are located across Indiana and in St. Louis. Call us today at (800) 746-0226 for a free case consultation or submit an online form.

David W. Craig is a nationally recognized truck accident lawyer who sits on the Board of Regents of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (which requires the board certification in truck accident law). He is the managing partner and one of the founding partners of Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC. He is recognized as a Top 10 Trucking Trial Lawyer and Top 100 Trial Lawyer in Indiana by the National Trial Lawyers, as well as a Top 50 Indiana lawyer by Super Lawyers. He was the recipient of the National Thurgood Marshall “Fighting for Justice” Award for his work helping victims of truck wrecks. David is the author of Semitruck Wreck, A Guide for Victims and Their Families, written to help people navigate a terrible situation by answering questions that come after a tragic wreck. He also hosts the podcast After the Crash, where you can gain valuable information about the dangers involving semis and large trucks that do not follow Indiana law safety protocol regarding speed, weather conditions, maintenance upkeep, etc.