An insurance company will not offer compensation for a catastrophic injury, unless the claimant can prove his or her possession of such a condition. The claimant’s medical records serve as a source of evidence; they support the claim made to the insurance company.
The information in the medical records documents the victim’s/claimant’s story
It explains how the injury occurred and offers details on the effects of the injury. It would give any information on complications that arose, due to the injury’s existence. If a simple injury led to the occurrence of a string of complications, that could be viewed as something as traumatic as one of the catastrophic injuries.
Documents that can supplement what is found in the medical records.
• Papers that show when victim was admitted to a hospital, and when released.
• Papers that offer details on a test result, or on an x-ray or an imaging study.
• A prognosis made by the treating physician.
• Information from any of the doctors consulted during the course of treatment.
• Bills from the facilities that provided some form of treatment.
• The victim’s medical history, before the accident.
• The evidence that the victim kept all the appointments scheduled by the treating physician.
• Evidence of the victim’s participation in some type of training program, even if it did not produce the desired result.
• Evidence of sacrifices forced on victim by the catastrophic injury. For instance, someone that suffered burn injuries might have had to forego a career as a model.
Added information that would be sought by the insurance company
That would be the results of an independent medical exam (IME). During the IME, the victim gets examined by a doctor that has been hired by the insurance company. The insurance company then uses the doctor’s findings to judge the extent to which the claimant did or did not become the victim of a catastrophic condition.
Unfortunately, the doctors conducting an IME do not always give a totally honest and objective opinion. Some of them just say what the insurance company would like to hear. When that happens then the examined victim needs to seek help from a lawyer.
A good personal injury lawyer in Fredericton should explain to the client/victim that the opinion of the insurance company might be called into question by those that had worked with or had known the accident victim. Any one of them might have seen the degree to which the victim’s condition hampered his or her enjoyment of activities that a healthy individual can pursue with pleasure. In such a situation, it might only be a matter of time before the victim’s true condition gets revealed. At that point, a good lawyer should be able to fight any denial of coverage.