You sued your doctor.
He was careless.
His carelessness caused you injury.
Your injuries are permanent and disabling.
The defense is entitled to get your medical records.
They are entitled to see what medical care and treatment received in the past.
They are also entitled to see what medical care and treatment you received from the time you were injured up until now.
Why is that?
So they can evaluate what your medical condition was like before you were injured as well as after.
This incident is still fresh in your mind.
It feels like it happened only yesterday.
Yet it has been more than a year since it happened.
You have been under the care a various doctors to correct the problems caused by your first doctor.
We provided the defense attorneys with permission slips that allows them to get copies of your medical records.
We only give them permission slips that will allow them to get copies of your medical records going back three years.
That's a reasonable amount of time for them to evaluate your medical condition before this incident occurred.
Yet at the next court conference, the defense attorney asks for 15 years worth of your medical records!
She doesn't give a reason why.
She simply asks the judge's law clerk for permission to obtain copies of your records going back 15 years.
I respond “That's ridiculous! Defense counsel fails to give any reason why they need 15 years worth of records in order to defend this case."
The judge's law clerk looks to the defense attorney for an answer.
What she says is surprising.
What she says shocks me.
She says that the medical records they currently have indicate that this patient's problem has existed for more than 10 years before this incident ever occurred.
I was not aware of that.
I must've missed the memo on that.
Seriously though, I did not see any medical record to suggest that.
I had obtained five years worth of the patient's prior medical records.
There was nothing contained in those records to indicate this patient had an ongoing medical problem that would somehow affect what occurred during this incident and this doctor whom she was now suing.
“Sorry, but going back five years in this patient's medical records reveals nothing to indicate she had a prior medical history in any way relating to the issues in this case.”
The Judge's law clerk asked the defense attorney to show him the exact information she found that says this patient had a medical history going back more than 10 years.
She couldn't.
She didn't have any medical record.
Want to know why?
Because there was no record.
This was a fishing expedition.
She wanted to see how far she could go before somebody finally called her out on it.
She was hoping that she could get many more years worth of my client's medical records.
The law clerk raised an eyebrow when the defense attorney said “I don't have anything with me to confirm that." statement.
The law clerk replied, "Fine. When you get back to your office I want you to e-mail me the medical record that points to the fact that your statement is accurate.”
This is where she started to make excuses.
It was obvious to see that she had no basis in fact to ask for 15 years worth of medical records.
You should know that if she had been able to prove that my client did have a medical condition going back 10 or 15 years and it somehow related to the defenses in this case, the judge's clerk would likely have allowed the defense attorney to get copies of those medical records.
The reasoning behind that is that they are allowed to obtained your medical records for the purposes of putting on a defense, especially when it relates to your medical condition before this incident occurred.
The defense attorneys might want to show a jury that the problems you are experiencing now are no different than the problems you experienced in the past 10 or 15 years.
However, without being able to show that there is any connection between your treatment 10 or 15 years ago and the issues you have today, it is unlikely the defense will be able to get more than three years of your medical records.
To learn about a doctor who altered his medical records in a medical malpractice case, I invite you to watch the quick video below...
