Hughes & Coleman | Injury Law Blog

                  The doctors most often used as an expert in a personal injury case are the ones that treated the plaintiff in the emergency room, the plaintiff’s personal doctor that would be seen for any injury or even a cold or any doctor that the plaintiff was treated by because of the injuries in the case.  The plaintiff is commonly referred to a specialist, such as an orthopedist or a neurologist, in traumatic injury cases.  Most of the time these doctors do a good job of explaining the injury and their treatment.  However, there are a number of doctors that do not understand the legal process and they seemingly do not want to understand it.  There are some that appear to get pleasure in giving negative testimony even when it is less than accurate.  A few of these doctors even believe that by minimizing the injury they will help the misguided legal system correct itself.  This problem is not uncommon and, therefore,  plaintiffs should not be surprised if their lawyer refers them to a competent expert doctor who is willing to live with the problems and limitations of our legal system.  This referral to a non-treating doctor is not done to enhance the case beyond where it should be, rather the referral is made to insure that the case is not unfairly undermined by a misguided physician.

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                  The importance of keeping accurate records cannot be overemphasized.  Medical visits and procedures, including the reasons for them, diagnoses made, medications prescribed, out-of-pocket costs for travel and lost work days and so on, are easily confused or forgotten with the passage of time. Remember, it could be a year or years before you are asked to recount these items.  Therefore, it is advisable for you to keep a diary immediately after the injury.  This is especially true if you are waiting on the defendant’s insurance company to get back to you with an offer of settlement.  If you do not have a lawyer working on your case, record keeping is even more crucial and you will negatively impact your case unless someone keeps up with these matters.  You need to document how you feel on a daily basis and any pain, inabilities, improvements or deterioration in your condition should be noted.  Conversations with anyone about the case should be noted. This includes the police officer and any person at the scene of the injury as well as any medical personnel that may have been present or at the emergency room.  Many of these folks make notes for themselves and often times their notes are not accurate because they confuse cases or delay writing reports.  It is also very important that you record your personal memories about the incident while they are fresh in your mind.

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It is a no brainer that a plaintiff must be honest about any injury when appearing in front of a jury.  If a jury thinks that you tried to make your injuries appear more serious by exaggerating your symptoms, it can not only hurt your case but it can almost destroy it.  The same idiom applies when you are ordered to appear before the defendant’s medical doctor for an independent medical examination (IME).  The defense has the right to have the plaintiff examined medically in any case where the plaintiff is claiming to have a physical injury caused by the defendant.  These examinations enable the defense experts to evaluate the plaintiff and determine whether the condition is as bad as claimed.  In addition, the medical experts will often make a determination as to if the incident in question was the cause of the injury in question.  Therefore, not only be honest with the defense doctor, but make sure you are clear about what is bothering you and when it is that you feel pain.  Most people hate to complain about sickness, pain and depression, but an examination by a defense doctor is not the place for those type of concerns.  Defense doctors often take advantage of answers like “I feel alright” or “I don’t always have pain”  to imply that plaintiff’s injuries are not that severe or even that they do not exit at all.  In addition, these doctors are expert at gaining your confidence so they can ask you about the accident details and other matters that have nothing to do with the examination.  When recounted by the doctor in front of a jury conflicts in details could hurt you credibility.  So, be honest, be direct and do not chitchat while you are being examined.

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