Already injured from a previous accident but just got in a new accident?
If a new car accident aggravates a pre-existing injury, you may still have a personal injury claim in Florida.
Florida’s Standard Jury Instruction 501.5(a) specifically recognizes that an accident-related injury can aggravate an existing disease or physical condition, or activate a condition that was previously latent.
The fact that you already had a bad back, injured knee, neck problem, arthritis, or even injuries from a previous accident does not give another negligent driver a free pass to make your condition worse.
The important questions for you and your Delray Beach accident lawyer become:
What was your condition immediately before the new accident?
What changed because of the new collision?
And how can your lawyer prove the difference?
As a Florida board certified personal injury lawyer in Delray Beach, Florida, I’ve helped many victims who have been re-injured through no fault of their own through the negligence of other drivers.
Of course, It’s difficult to go through life without having some previous injury. You may have an old sports injury. You may have degenerative changes in your back and neck. You may have undergone surgeries. And you may even have been injured in a prior car accident. If you’re like me, you likely have an older injury like this.
Then all of the sudden…another accident happens.
Can you still receive compensation if your older injuries are re-aggravated or become worse? When a new car accident or motorcycle accident occurs, one of our most important jobs as Delray Beach injury lawyers is establishing what additional harm the new accident caused.
You Don’t Have to Be Perfectly Healthy Before Someone Injures You
One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is:
“But I already had a bad back. Doesn’t that hurt my case?”
Not necessarily.
Florida’s civil jury instructions to jurors in accident cases specifically recognize situations in which an accident aggravates an existing disease or physical condition or activates a condition that was previously latent.
The instructions tell jurors to determine, when possible, what portion of a person’s condition resulted from the new aggravation. In circumstances where that distinction cannot reasonably be made, the instruction also addresses recovery for the condition that cannot be separated.
It comes down to this: Florida law does not require you to be perfectly healthy before somebody negligently injures you.
The issue is what that person’s negligence did to you.
What Does It Mean to Aggravate a Pre-Existing Injury?
There are several different ways we see this after automobile accidents.
You might have had occasional lower-back pain before being rear-ended, but after the crash the pain becomes constant and you require months of treatment.
You might have previously injured your knee, recovered well enough to exercise and work normally, and then have another accident that causes the knee to deteriorate and require additional medical care.
You might have arthritis or degenerative disc changes that showed up on an MRI years ago but were causing relatively little trouble until a serious collision made the condition symptomatic.
Or you may sustain an entirely new injury in the same part of the body that had previously been injured.
These situations are medically and legally different, but they have something in common: your condition after the accident is worse than it was immediately before the accident.
That before-and-after difference is something a good personal injury lawyer must be able to prove.
A Delray Beach Case: A Second Accident the Day After Treatment Ended
We handled a case here in Delray Beach that illustrates this issue particularly well.
Our client had been injured in an earlier car accident and had gone through a course of physical therapy. He had finally reached the point where his physical therapy treatment was finished. In fact, he had already received a settlement for his earlier case.
The very next day, he was involved in another accident.
He was at a convenience store on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach when an Uber driver backed out quickly and struck his vehicle.
The second collision re-aggravated the injuries for which our client had just completed treatment. He had to return to the physical therapist and neurologist for medical care and begin treating those injuries again.
Think about the timing.
One day, the client had reached the point where his course of physical therapy was complete. The next day, another driver hit him, his symptoms worsened, and additional medical treatment became necessary.
That treatment timeline became extremely important.
We were able to document the client’s condition before and after the second collision, demonstrate the additional problems caused by the new accident, and successfully settle the case…our client was very pleased with his additional compensation for all the suffering and pain he had to endure.
It is an excellent example of why having a pre-existing injury does not necessarily prevent someone from pursuing a claim after a second accident.
How Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Prove an Old Injury Became Worse?
These cases require careful preparation because the insurance company may argue that your symptoms have nothing to do with its insured’s accident.
A lawyer therefore needs to build a clear picture of your health before the crash and after the crash.
Review the Medical Records Before the Accident
I want to know what was actually going on before the new collision.
- Were you still receiving treatment? How often?
- Were you improving? Were you considering surgery?
- Were you working normally and participating in your usual activities?
- Etc.
The answers help establish your true baseline before the new accident occurred.
Document What Changed After the Accident
Then we look at what happened afterward.
- Did pain become more severe?
- Did symptoms that had resolved return?
- Did you have to restart physical therapy?
- Did you begin missing work? Missing activities?
- Etc.
Those changes help tell the story of the aggravation.
Compare Diagnostic Testing When Appropriate
Prior X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and other medical records can sometimes be enormously helpful.
But imaging needs to be considered in context.
Someone might have an MRI showing degenerative changes in the lumbar spine years before an accident. That does not automatically mean that person was suffering significant back pain every day.
Which brings me to an important point.
An Old MRI Does Not Tell You How Someone Was Living
Insurance companies love prior medical records.
If they find an old MRI showing arthritis, disc degeneration, or some other abnormality, they may point to it and say:
“See? This problem existed before our insured ever hit this person.”
That isn’t necessarily the end of the discussion.
Suppose you’re a Delray Beach resident who has had had degenerative disc disease on an MRI but was nevertheless working full time, exercising, playing golf or tennis, traveling, sleeping normally, and going months or years without medical treatment.
Then you get rear-ended at a traffic light on Barwick Rd. and suddenly cannot sit at a desk for more than 20 minutes without significant pain.
The MRI is one piece of evidence.
How you were actually functioning before and after the collision is another.
That distinction can become extremely important in a personal injury case.
Your Doctors Can Help Establish What the New Accident Caused
Medical testimony can also be critical.
A treating doctor may be able to explain whether the collision caused a new injury, aggravated an existing injury, accelerated an underlying condition, or caused a previously manageable condition to become symptomatic.
That is one reason I tell clients to be completely honest with their doctors about their medical history.
Trying to hide an old injury usually hurts rather than helps.
Your Boca Raton or Delray Beach car accident lawyer needs to know about the prior treatment. Your doctors need an accurate history. And you should assume the insurance company will eventually obtain relevant prior medical records anyway.
The better strategy is usually to confront the issue directly:
This was my condition before the crash. This is what happened in the crash. And this is how my condition changed afterward.
What If You’ve Been in More Than One Car Accident?
Multiple accidents can make a claim more complicated, but they do not necessarily make it impossible.
Imagine someone injured his neck in a collision three years ago. He completed physical therapy, improved considerably, and returned to his normal activities.
Three years later, another driver runs into the back of his vehicle on Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
His neck pain returns – except now it is substantially worse. He develops radiating pain into his arm that he did not have previously. Maybe additional treatment or surgery is recommended.
The insurance carrier for the second driver may focus heavily on accident number one.
The job of the auto accident injury lawyer is to establish where the client stood immediately before accident number two and what accident number two changed.
Florida’s standard civil jury instructions expressly address aggravation of an existing physical condition, which is why documenting that distinction can be so important when these cases are litigated.
The Same Issue Can Arise in a Motorcycle Accident
The principle is not limited to car crashes. As Delray Beach motorcycle accident lawyers, we’ve had cases where our clients re aggravated a previous injury through no fault of their own,
Consider the case of one of our clients who was a motorcycle rider who had previously injured his shoulder playing sports. He underwent treatment, recovered, returned to work, and resumed most normal activities.
Later, a driver turns left in front of his motorcycle on Atlantic Avenue and causes a collision that throws him onto the pavement.
The rider lands hard on the same shoulder.
The fact that the shoulder had been injured years earlier doesn’t answer the important question.
The real question is:
What additional damage did this motorcycle accident cause?
If the rider’s previously manageable shoulder now requires substantial treatment or surgery, that change needs to be medically documented and legally evaluated.
Expect the Insurance Company to Look for Prior Injuries
If you bring an injury claim after a serious automobile accident, you should expect the insurance carrier to investigate your medical history.
Prior accidents, previous physical therapy, old orthopedic treatment, earlier MRIs, sports injuries, and similar records may become relevant.
That does not mean you should be afraid of them.
It means your lawyer should know about them early.
Sometimes prior medical records actually help establish the case because they provide a documented picture of the client’s condition before the new accident.
For example, records may show that an earlier injury had improved, treatment had ended, or symptoms were relatively minor before the new collision occurred.
Again, it comes down to the before and after.
What Should You Do If a New Accident Makes an Old Injury Worse?
Tell your treating physicians about both the old injury and what changed after the new accident.
Do not exaggerate your previous condition, but don’t minimize it either.
Be accurate.
If your back hurt occasionally before the accident, say so. If you had been treating your back every week right up until the collision, your lawyer needs to know that too.
The strength of these cases comes from being able to establish a credible medical and factual timeline.
The New Driver Doesn’t Get a Free Pass Because You Were Already Hurt
This is the point I want injured people to understand.
You may have had a bad back.
You may have undergone knee surgery five years ago.
You may have arthritis.
You may even have been recovering from another automobile accident when the new crash happened.
None of those facts automatically means another negligent driver can make your condition worse without being responsible for the additional harm caused.
Pre-existing injury cases can be more complicated because they require careful medical analysis, documentation, and sometimes testimony explaining precisely what changed.
But complicated does not mean unwinnable.
Our job as personal injury lawyers is to establish the truth of what happened: who you were physically before the collision, what the new accident did to you, and what it will take to compensate you for the additional harm that accident caused.
In conclusion, yes, if a new car accident aggravates your pre-existing injuries you may stil be able to file a claim in Florida.
So if you or a friend or loved one were injured in a car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, or other accident in Delray Beach, Boca Raton, or elsewhere in South Florida and a prior condition has been made worse, speak with our board certified, highly experienced Florida personal injury attorney David Zappitell about how the aggravation may affect your claim.
To get the justice and compensation you deserve, turn to Zappitell Law. Click here or give us a call at (561) 330-6330 for a free consultation.