The lawyers that defend the drivers that are responsible, allegedly, for a given accident have a number of defenses that get used over and over. One of those only works if the plaintiff has been injured in a previous accident. In that case, the defendant’s lawyer might claim that the plaintiff had not recovered fully from the earlier injuries.

How can a personal injury lawyer deal with such a defense?

In this instance, it becomes the lawyer’s job to show that the previous injury had stabilized. Once an injury has stabilized, its ability to be affected by an impactful collision does not exceed the effect of the same collision on any other part of the body.

So, how does an injury lawyer show that an injury has stabilized? That must be done by establishing a baseline. An analysis of the injured client’s medical records ought to show that the same client was in good health, during the days leading up to the collision.

A Personal Injury Lawyer in Burlington supplements that baseline with a second document. That would be one that was obtained from the physician that treated the previous injury. That same physician should state in writing that the recovered patient had completed a successful treatment routine, and the injured body part was now totally healed.

A second issue that might challenge a personal injury injury lawyer

That would be an issue that could arise if the plaintiff had a pre-existing condition. In that instance, the defendant’s legal team might suggest that the plaintiff was especially susceptible to the effects of an accident. The plaintiff’s/client’s injury lawyer could fight that argument by producing any medical records that served as proof of the client’s good health.

Alternately, the defense team might suggest that the injured plaintiff should have been using some type of added safety device. That argument hints at the need for anyone with a pre-existing condition to exercise an added amount of caution. In fact, the law makes it clear that no defendant has the right to select the health of the person that gets affected by his or her negligent behavior.

In other words, if someone’s negligence creates a new medical issue for a victim with a pre-existing condition, that victim cannot be blamed for becoming the unwilling target of the careless and neglectful actions. A lawyer’s effort at re-wording a statement that would suggest such blame could take the form of a false claim, regarding the victim’s need for an added safety device.

Victims that are consulting with different personal injury lawyers should keep that fact in mind. Those with a pre-existing condition ought to learn whether or not the consulted lawyer was asked to handle a similar case in the past.