Do pre-existing conditions affect the payment of my injury claim?
Longshore accident attorneys often come across cases where the claimant had a prior injury, and a new claim has been denied.
A pre-existing injury can make winning a claim more difficult, but it is certainly not the case-killer that the opposing side would have you believe.
In some cases, the opposing party, such as the employer’s insurance company, will try to intimidate the claimant by touting pre-existing injuries, hoping that the injured person will drop the claim or accept a lowball payment offer. ,
Did your pre-existing injury affect the injury?
If your pre-existing injury is a broken leg, and you burned your hands on the steam press, how can anyone claim that your pre-existing injury was the problem?
Perhaps if you broke your leg before and caused a truck accident because you couldn’t use the brakes, your pre-existing injury was probably the problem.
Otherwise, you and your Longshore accident attorney need to clarify how your pre-existing injury affected the accident/injury.
Mixed signals and problematic injuries
Perhaps one of the most problematic pre-existing injuries is a back injury. Back injuries are already difficult because they are easily faked, they have varying levels of severity, they are very difficult to treat, and their impact on a person’s overall health varies greatly from person to person.
If your job is to lift boxes, and you drop one, your pre-existing back injury will come into question. Some injuries, such as back injuries, are difficult to claim because so many elements are unclear or difficult to tie down.
Declared or Undeclared Injuries
There are two ways of looking at this. For example, perhaps you didn’t declare a pre-existing injury to your employer because you never sought medical attention for it.
Then one day, you injure yourself at work and want to make a claim. In that case, your pre-existing injury won’t hurt your case and may even help you appear more injured than you are.
However, if you were caught with a pre-existing injury you did not declare to your employer, you may lose your claim entirely.
On the other hand, if you’ve already had an injury, and you tell your employer, and then you have an accident, and you’re injured, you’re probably still due a fair claim payment.
If your employer knows about your pre-existing injury in advance and still puts you in a position where your pre-existing injury could cause a problem, you can often claim and win.
California Alimony and Spousal Support
Final thoughts – pre-existing injuries make things more difficult
As you have learned from this article, just because you have had an injury in the past does not mean that your lawyer will lose your case for claim payment.
However, there are some occasions where a pre-existing injury complicates the matter. If you are concerned about how your pre-existing injury may affect your compensation claim, contact Belal Hamidah Law and get some honest advice about what you should do next.