Will Prior Injuries Affect the Way Your Tampa Car Accident Lawyer Proves Your Current Injuries?

In the past few years, the phrase "preexisting condition" has become a common buzzword. It often refers to the fact that a health insurance company may deny you coverage if there is evidence that your condition began before you enrolled in your current health insurance plan. On a similar note, a car insurance company also may try to deny you coverage if you sustained injuries months or years before your car accident. This is particularly true if you sustained injuries to the same area of your body. For instance, if you injured your knee while jogging in Tampa five years ago, and that same knee was injured in a car accident on Kennedy Boulevard, a car insurance company may try to deny you coverage by saying your automobile accident did not cause your knee injury.

If you are injured in a Tampa, Florida area automobile accident and you have sustained any injuries in the past, before your accident, hiring an experienced Tampa car accident lawyer is particularly important. The fact that there were prior injuries to your body can be used by the defense as a reason to provide you with inadequate and unfair compensation—particularly if your automobile accident injuries are to the same parts of the body that were injured prior to your accident.

In the state of Florida, you are entitled to compensation for all of the injuries that can be proved were caused by your car accident, regardless of your prior condition. There is an old legal axiom that says, “Defendants take the plaintiffs as they find them.” For example, let's say there is a rear-end collision between your automobile and a truck. If the truck is carrying one million dollars' worth of cement statues, and none of them break, you'll have no financial responsibility. But if you hit a truck that contains one million dollars' worth of porcelain statues and they shatter, you will be responsible for the one million dollars' worth of porcelain statues. The fact that the porcelain statues are fragile has nothing to do with your responsibility to pay for the damages. Likewise, the fact that you were injured before has nothing to do with the responsibility of the negligent driver (and his or her insurance company) to reimburse you for the injuries you suffered in the accident.

Because of your prior injuries or physical condition, you may be more susceptible to injury than somebody else. But that doesn't make the defendant any less responsible for the injury or injuries they caused to you. To be able to prove to the insurance company, or if necessary a jury, that the Tampa area motor vehicle accident you were involved in was either separate from any previous injury or aggravated it, requires that you have a car accident attorney with experience, ability, and passion. It will be important, for example, that the medical doctors who treat you after the car accident clearly document your injuries so that the difference in either objective or subjective complaints is documented. Without that clear documentation by capable medical doctors, there will be no way years later to prove the damages that you have experienced as a result of the accident.

In addition, it is important that your Tampa car accident lawyer explains to you the law and the issues so you have the ability to make sure that doctors unfamiliar with the litigation process have truly and adequately documented and distinguished between your current complaints and your prior complaints.

Oftentimes when there are prior injuries, it is necessary to file a lawsuit in order to receive appropriate compensation. Sometimes Tampa law firms in these situations encourage their clients to accept less-than-adequate compensation in order to avoid the hard work, challenges, and costs of going to trial. Once a lawsuit is filed, it will be necessary for you to work closely with your attorney in preparation for your deposition, and ultimately your trial testimony, so that the jury will clearly understand how the auto accident significantly aggravated your previous condition or injuries.

In addition, your car accident attorney will need to hire experts who can explain to the jury how the forces of the collision would have resulted in the injuries you have and how they differ from the injury or condition you had previously. Only by recognizing all of the problems and issues that come up when someone with prior injuries is in an auto accident can a person expect to receive the appropriate compensation at the end of the day.

Our Tampa, Florida law firm has significant experience in helping clients with prior injuries and conditions receive the appropriate compensation. Please contact the law firm of Dale Appell, P.A. today for a free consultation about your car accident with injuries, even if you have been injured before. We have successfully represented individuals with pre-existing conditions and their families throughout the Tampa Bay area from Sun City Center to Lutz, Town & Country to Ybor, and Clearwater to St Petersburg.