Many areas of law rely upon the use of medical experts or treating physicians as a tool to assess the significance of your medical condition. Some areas of law have a stronger use of doctors. If you’re injured on the job or due to a slip and fall or motor vehicle accident or propuct liability, you may have a workers compensation claim or a personal injury law suit. If your condition keeps you out for an extended period of time, you may be able to claim Long Term Disability, Short Disability, or Social Security Disability.
Despite the program you may be claiming or law suit you are filing, the use of a medical provider may be an integral part of the process.
Unfortunately, people have a bad habit of not appreciating the level of scrutiny a doctor or consultant has when evaluating you or assessing your case. In other words, these professionals are trained to evaluate your condition but sometimes, people think that they trick the system.
When I say trick the system, here’s a few things that come to mind:
1) You say one thing but your medical reports say something else. Sometimes, people think that they can say something and the doctor will just accept it for what it is. The joy of laboratory reports or objective evaluations like MRI, X-Rays, or CAT Scans is that these reports can either support or not support your statement. If you are screaming that your back is constantly killing you but there is nothing to support this assessment, you may be hurting your case as opposed to helping it.
2) You DO one thing but your medical reports say something else. Let’s be real, people. Don’t think that your doctor might not be watching you when you’re walking up to the door and then you decide to use your cane when you get inside. Doctors are smart. If your reports say one thing and your statements say something else, they are going to look a little further to make sure that you are truly in bad shape.
3) You don’t know WHAT they are writing. Sometimes, people think that the evaluators or the physicians are writing exactly what they tell you. NO More, NO LESS! However, unless you are there when they write their reports, you have no idea of what they are going to say on their final evaluation. Remember, most evaluators or physicians are going to cover themselves.
4) You can’t BEAT the exam! For some weird reason, people think that they can fake their way through a physical or psychological exam. What most people DON’T realize is that most of these exams have conditions set within them that let’s the tester know if the person is not giving the best effort or is, at worst, faking it. If you really want to mess up your case, try faking an exam as a way to make your case look better.
5) The doctors don’t know unless you say something. Sometimes, people don’t understand that evaluators or doctors CAN’T read your mind. If you don’t share with them your stresses, anxieties or issues, how are they going to know that they must address those issues.
Medical evaluations are crucial components of a variety of different types of cases which are necessary to support your claim. Make sure you give your best effort to ensure that you don’t cause harm to your case.
