Most people who get hurt are not in perfect health with perfect athletic builds before the injury. Ultimately, every case our lawyers deal with involves accidents that take people from whatever state they were in before the accident and make things worse. Your state before the injury is generally where preexisting injuries and conditions are factored into injury cases.
The point of a lawsuit is to pay the victim back and restore them – as much as possible – to the state they were in before the accident. Preexisting conditions, health conditions, and prior injuries might affect what that benchmark looks like. However, that also means courts and defendants must take you as you are. They have to pay you for the accident that happened, even if a more “average” person could have avoided injuries.
For a free case review, call the New Jersey personal injury lawyers at Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. today at (201) 777-1111.
When Preexisting Conditions Are Helpful
A classic rule in personal injury law is known as the “eggshell skull rule.” This rule says that you take the plaintiff as you find them.
The hypothetical example deals with a victim whose skull is made of eggshell. They would obviously be more vulnerable to injury than an average person, but the defendant needs to pay for what happened to this defendant, not some hypothetical “average defendant.”
This can help you prove the defendant was at fault if you have a disability or condition that made you more vulnerable to injury. Think, for example, of a slip and fall on a snowy sidewalk. If an average person walking along would not have slipped, that doesn’t mean the sidewalk was safe enough for you if you were walking with crutches!
The law judges whether the defendant’s actions were reasonable in the situation at hand, not some hypothetical with a different victim.
Similarly, if your injuries were far worse than an “average” defendant’s injuries would have been, they still need to pay for the damages you actually suffered, which might be higher.
When Preexisting Conditions Hurt Your Case
However, preexisting conditions are not always helpful in your case. Defendants – and some juries – can be discriminatory toward people with health conditions and disabilities, and overcoming stereotypes and biases might be something our Jersey City personal injury lawyers need to pay special attention to when maximizing your damages.
Additionally, having a prior injury or health condition often lowers the bar for what it means for your life to get “back to normal.”
For example, if you were already completely unable to work because of a prior disability, then you would not get damages in this injury case for lost wages. Similarly, if you already experience chronic pain, you can only get compensation for the pain and suffering that’s added on top of your “normal” pain level.
This is especially difficult for many injury victims to hear when it comes to analyzing how long pain and suffering payments last. If your preexisting condition lowers your life expectancy, there are potentially fewer years for you to get paid pain and suffering for.
How Does a Prior Injury Affect My Injury Case?
The only thing worse than a sudden injury is two sudden injuries. If you were already dealing with the aftermath of one injury and suffered a second one, it is often treated similarly to how preexisting conditions are treated.
First, the fact that you were already weakened from the prior injury or using a wheelchair/crutches should be factored into what was reasonable for the defendant, potentially helping you prove they were too dangerous for you.
Second, you can only get damages for what this second injury did to make the first injury worse or to cause new harms. You cannot get damages in this second case for your initial injury’s medical bills, lost wages, or pain and suffering.
However, if you do not have an injury lawyer for your first case, we can help file both claims and parse out which damages are for which injury.
Do Cancer and Other Health Conditions Hurt My Claim?
It is illegal for courts to discriminate based on your health conditions, cancer status, or other medical issues. However, these may factor into your injury case when estimating the impact of the injury on your life.
Someone who already faces challenges from their cancer or other condition might have it even worse than a “normal” person after their accident. However, they may also have a higher baseline for pain and suffering, meaning this new injury did not contribute much.
Ultimately, your specific injury and how it interacts with your underlying health condition will require a case-by-case analysis.
Are Damages Reduced if I Have a Preexisting Condition?
Damages can go up or down – or face no effect whatsoever – because of a preexisting condition. It will always take a case-by-case analysis.
For example, if you were paraplegic before the accident, you might not face much pain and suffering for a broken leg if you cannot feel it. However, it could actually increase your medical care needs.
As a counterexample, you may have a neurological condition that makes a broken leg – or even the act of wearing a cast – incredibly difficult. It might take the same medical treatment to put a cast on your leg, but the pain and suffering could be considerably worse for you.
Sometimes total damages are higher, sometimes they are lower, and sometimes one category of damages goes up and another goes down. This may even result in a total payout on par with the payout someone without your condition might get.
How Can a Lawyer Help My Injury Case if I Have Preexisting Conditions?
Our attorneys can help with your case in a few ways:
- Arguing that the defendant is still liable in spite of or because of your preexisting condition
- Analyzing the damages you faced and how your injury should be accounted for based on legal precedents
- Negotiating with defendants and their insurance companies for full damages
- Speaking with medical experts about your condition and how it might affect your claim
- Using expert reports in court to build your case
- Arguing your case before a judge and jury.
Call Our New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys Today
For your free case review, call (201) 777-1111 to speak with Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C.’s Paterson, NJ personal injury attorneys.