How Do Pre-Existing Conditions Affect My Personal Injury Claim?

If you’ve recently suffered an injury that wasn’t your fault, you might think you won’t be able to claim compensation or receive a generous payout because of your pre-existing condition. While pre-existing conditions undeniably complicate personal injury claims, there’s no reason why your condition should result in the denial of your claim – provided you know what to do following your accident.

Unfortunately, insurance companies don’t set out to help plaintiffs (the person claiming compensation) to earn the payout they deserve following an accident that resulted in an injury. In most cases, insurers will attempt to prove that your injury was solely due to your pre-existing condition and not aggravated by your accident. Insurance firms are for-profit businesses. Therefore, the less money they pay out to plaintiffs, the more profit they retain.

What Counts as a Pre-Existing Condition?

At Corradino & Papa, we’ve dealt with all manner of personal injury claims involving plaintiffs with pre-existing medical conditions, which may include:

• Heart conditions
• Degenerative disc disease
• High blood pressure
• Depression
• Asthma
• Osteoarthritis
• Type 2 diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Complications from medical treatments

As mentioned above, insurance companies will almost certainly try to prove that the injury you sustained as a result of your accident was due to your pre-existing condition. However, if your accident aggravated your injury and wasn’t your fault, you deserve full compensation based on the ‘Eggshell Plaintiff Theory.’

How to Make a Claim

You should visit a medical professional as soon as you can following your accident so that they can determine how much the accident aggravated your condition. The longer you wait to visit a physician, the easier it will be for the defendant’s insurance company to reduce your compensation or persuade the judge to deny your claim. You should never lie about your pre-existing condition because insurance companies will likely be able to uncover the information, and your dishonesty will do more harm than good. Remember, based on the Eggshell Plaintiff Theory; you’re entitled to full compensation regardless of the state of your health.

Our team of personal injury lawyers can use medical reports as evidence in court to help you receive the compensation you deserve as a result of your injury. You may also need to file a police statement and call your insurance company right away for advice on what to do next following your accident, but the best thing you can do is call an attorney for help. Choose our team of legal experts, and you can feel confident you’ll be in safe hands while making your claim.

Corradino & Papa, LLC is a personal injury law firm based in Clifton, New Jersey.