Three Reasons Why Pre-existing Injuries Don’t Kill Your Personal Injury or Workers Compensation Claim
Introduction: Pre-Existing Injuries, Much Ado About Nothing
In the context of a personal injury or workers compensation claim in Columbus, Georgia or Phenix City, Alabama, a pre-existing condition/injury is a physical or mental condition that partially existed before the incident giving rise to the personal injury claim.
1. Pre-existing Injuries That Are Made Worse by the Car Wreck, Slip and Fall, or On-The-Job Injury Are Valid Claims!
An adjuster or defense attorney will always make a big deal about a plaintiff or claimant who has a pre-existing injury in the same body party that the plaintiff/claimant claims after a car wreck, slip and fall, or workers compensation injury. If the pre-existing condition was made worse (“aggravated”) by the car wreck, slip and fall, or workers compensation injury, then under both Georgia and Alabama law, the Plaintiff may recover for her claim.
2. No One Has a Perfect Body Prior to a Car Wreck, Slip and Fall, or Workers Compensation Injury!
Despite what the magazines, TV, and other media tell us, no one in this life has a perfect body! An MRI, CT Scan, or X-ray of anyone’s spine will likely show degenerative changes in the spine – regardless of whether a person has suffered an injury. As we grow older, our bodies simply wither away internally. Nevertheless, these internal, degenerative conditions may be “asymptomatic” prior to an injury in a workers compensation injury, car accident, or slip and fall.
This can cause the degenerative condition – usually a disc bulge, disc herniation, or disc protrusion to become “symptomatic,” i.e., causing pain. A person with degenerative disc disease can seek damages if that “pre-existing condition” becomes activated in a car crash, slip and fall, or workers compensation injury.
3. Aggravation Cases Have the Same Standard of Evidence, Which is Low.
The truth is that an aggravation injury is no more difficult to prove than a new injury. Pain is already extremely subjective. If a pre-existing condition is made worse by a wreck, workers compensation injury, or slip and fall, all the plaintiff/claimant need prove that the injury increased the need for the medical treatment by a preponderance of the evidence. To use a football analogy, the Plaintiff need only move the football a nose over the 50 yard line to make her case. Don’t buy into the lies the insurance company adjuster feeds you that certain aspects of your claim are not compensable.
If you had a prior injury and have recently suffered a new injury or your pain has become worse, please call the Law Offices of Mark P. Jones to speak with Columbus Ga Personal Injury Lawyer Mark Jones regarding your rights under Georgia and Alabama law. 706-225-2555 or mark@lawyermarkjones.com.
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