Pre-existing conditions complicate injury cases in ways many people don’t anticipate. Prior injuries, chronic health issues, and previous accidents create challenges that must be addressed strategically to recover fair compensation.
Our friends at Pavlack Law, LLC discuss how pre-existing conditions don’t prevent recovery but do require careful handling to prove that accidents made things worse. A truck accident lawyer knows how to address prior medical history honestly while demonstrating how new trauma aggravated or worsened existing conditions.
These eleven reasons explain how pre-existing conditions impact injury cases.
1. Insurance Companies Blame Everything on Prior Conditions
Defense attorneys and insurance adjusters scour medical records looking for any prior injury or health issue they can blame for your current complaints. They argue you were already suffering before the accident and that the collision didn’t cause new harm.
According to the American Bar Association, addressing pre-existing conditions transparently and strategically is essential for successful injury claims.
This defense strategy means we must prove how accidents made your condition significantly worse than it was before, not just that you had prior problems.
2. Medical Records Reveal Everything Eventually
Trying to hide pre-existing conditions always backfires. Insurance companies obtain your complete medical history through discovery. When they find undisclosed prior injuries, your credibility gets destroyed.
The cover-up damages your case more than the pre-existing condition itself. Honesty from the beginning allows us to address prior conditions strategically rather than defensively.
3. Proving Aggravation Requires Medical Testimony
You can recover compensation for accidents that worsen pre-existing conditions, but proving aggravation requires professional medical testimony explaining your baseline condition before accidents, how trauma worsened your problems, and the difference between pre-existing symptoms and new harm.
Without clear medical evidence distinguishing old conditions from accident-related aggravation, insurance companies refuse to pay for treatment addressing problems they claim already existed.
4. Baseline Evidence Becomes Essential
Establishing your condition before accidents helps prove how much worse things became afterward. Helpful baseline evidence includes medical records showing symptom levels before accidents, treatment history demonstrating condition stability, work records proving you functioned normally, and activities you performed without limitation.
This baseline comparison shows juries and insurance companies how dramatically accidents changed your condition.
5. Prior Settlements Affect Current Claims
If you received compensation for previous injuries to the same body parts, insurance companies argue you’ve already been paid for these problems. They discount current claims by amounts previously recovered.
We address prior settlements by proving current injuries are distinct from or significantly worse than previous conditions that were compensated.
6. Pre-existing Conditions Affect Damage Calculations
Pain and suffering damages for aggravating pre-existing conditions typically run lower than damages for completely new injuries. Insurance companies argue you were already suffering before accidents and that new trauma added only marginal additional harm.
We counter these arguments by documenting specific functional decline and new limitations that didn’t exist before accidents.
7. Treatment History Creates Credibility Issues
Gaps in treatment for pre-existing conditions before accidents raise questions. If you hadn’t sought treatment for years before collisions, insurance companies question whether conditions were actually problematic or symptomatic.
Conversely, extensive prior treatment makes it easier to prove accidents worsened stable conditions when new symptoms or increased treatment needs develop after trauma.
8. Age-Related Degeneration Gets Used Against You
Older claimants face arguments that arthritis, degenerative disc disease, and other age-related conditions caused their symptoms rather than accidents. Defense medical professionals testify that imaging shows degeneration consistent with normal aging.
We prove that while degeneration existed, it was asymptomatic before accidents or that trauma accelerated deterioration beyond normal aging progression.
9. Comparative Medical Evidence Proves Worsening
Comparing diagnostic imaging before and after accidents demonstrates objective worsening. If pre-accident MRIs show minor degeneration while post-accident scans reveal new herniations or fractures, this visual evidence proves trauma caused additional damage.
Obtaining pre-accident imaging when it exists provides powerful objective proof that conditions worsened.
10. Similar Prior Accidents Complicate Causation
Multiple accidents affecting the same body parts create causation challenges. Insurance companies argue current symptoms result from previous trauma rather than recent collisions.
We establish timelines showing symptom resolution after prior accidents, functional recovery before current trauma, and new symptom onset directly following recent collisions.
11. Disclosure Timing Affects Credibility
When you disclose pre-existing conditions matters significantly. Revealing them immediately when asked appears honest and transparent. Discovering them later through medical records makes you appear deceptive even if you genuinely forgot about minor prior issues.
We advise clients to disclose everything upfront, then work strategically to demonstrate how accidents aggravated or worsened disclosed conditions.
Strategic Handling of Pre-existing Conditions
Pre-existing conditions don’t destroy injury cases, but they require strategic handling through honest disclosure, clear medical testimony about aggravation, baseline evidence showing functional status before accidents, and proof that trauma caused measurable worsening.
The key is working with your attorney to address prior conditions openly rather than trying to hide them. We present honest cases showing that while you had previous problems, accidents made things substantially worse and caused new limitations requiring compensation.
Insurance companies will discover pre-existing conditions regardless of whether you disclose them. Addressing them transparently allows us to control the narrative and present evidence of aggravation strategically rather than defending against accusations of dishonesty after undisclosed conditions are discovered.
Many successful injury claims involve claimants with prior injuries or health issues. What matters is proving that accidents caused new harm or significantly worsened existing problems beyond their baseline severity.
Moving Forward Honestly
Don’t let fear of pre-existing conditions prevent you from pursuing valid claims. Accidents that worsen prior injuries deserve compensation even though proving damages is more complex than cases involving completely new harm.
The combination of honesty about medical history and strong evidence of accident-related aggravation creates winning strategies for cases involving pre-existing conditions.
Contact an experienced attorney who will evaluate how pre-existing conditions affect your specific case, develop strategies for proving accident-related aggravation, work with medical professionals to document worsening of prior conditions, and fight for fair compensation that reflects how accidents made your life worse than it was before regardless of prior medical history that insurance companies will inevitably discover and use against you without strategic handling.
