Not every personal injury case requires medical experts, but they often play a critical role, especially if your case goes to trial. Medical experts can provide expert opinion testimony based on their professional experience and knowledge, and they can strengthen your case by providing objective professional opinions that add credibility to your claims. A great expert can explain complex medical concepts in a way that is clear and understandable to jurors and will help them understand your injuries and how they were caused. Keep reading to learn more about what you should know about medical expert testimony in a personal injury case.
What Do Medical Experts Do in a Personal Injury Case?
Medical experts, typically doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, work with personal injury lawyers to help people like you win their cases. They are usually specialists in the medical area related to your injury. In addition to ensuring that your expert is qualified through skills and experience, your lawyer will make sure that the expert has all the facts and data he or she needs to offer reliable, honest expert opinions in your case. Depending on your case, an expert may:
- Thoroughly review your medical records
- Conduct medical examinations
- Provide a report or letter regarding their expert opinions;
- Provide testimony in a deposition
- Testify as an expert witness in a trial
How Medical Experts Can Help You Win Your Case
Medical experts can help you prove several essential aspects of your personal injury case:
Causation
Expert medical testimony can show that the accident directly caused your injuries. Medical experts will review your medical records along with evidence showing what happened at the accident, including police reports and eyewitness statements. The expert’s testimony helps support your claims that it was the accident, and not something else, that caused your injuries, and that the negligent party should therefore be held legally responsible for the harm that your injuries caused.
Severity
Medical testimony can show how severe your injuries are and what kinds of treatment, therapy, and rehabilitation you need. This testimony is important in providing an expert basis for the amount of financial damages you are entitled to because of your injuries, your need for care, the expected need for future care, the permanency of your injuries, and the other effects your injuries have on your life.
Future Medical Needs
In addition to assessing your current treatment needs, medical experts can provide informed predictions about the long-term effects of your injuries, what kinds of treatment and other care you are likely to need in the future, and how long your need will continue. By testifying about both your present and future needs for medical care, experts can help you get the full compensation you need for the treatments that will help you move on with your life.
Quality of Life
In a personal injury case, you can seek compensation for loss of quality of life. Medical experts such as doctors, nurses, or certified life care planners, can explain to jurors how your injuries are likely to affect various aspects of your life beyond your need for treatment. For example, depending on your injuries, you may:
- Be unable to participate in activities that you enjoyed before the accident
- Have ongoing physical pain
- Have disabilities or disfigurements that cause you mental anguish
- Be unable to take care of yourself
- Have PTSD, depression, or anxiety
- Be unable to engage in marital relations
Lost Income
Medical experts can testify about why your injuries prevent you from returning to work or from working as much as you did before the accident. They can also strengthen claims about loss of future earning capacity by testifying how much time you will need before you can return to your former job, or if your injuries will prevent you from ever performing your former job duties.
Contact the Personal Injury Attorneys at Garmey Law
The personal injury team at Garmey Law has access to a network of medical experts who specialize in the types of injuries that result from automobile crashes and other types of accidents. If you were recently injured in an accident, call us at (207) 481-4683, or contact us through our website for a free consultation.
