UK personal injury solicitor explains why you must prove that your injuries were caused by the negligence of another to win your compensation claim – known as the causation principle
To win a claim for compensation an accident victim must show that the negligence of another caused injuries.
Medical causation is proved typically by your solicitor instructing a medical expert to complete a report after a review of your GP and hospital notes.
Solicitor Proving Medical Causation
It will be necessary for you to complete an authority to give your permission for the release of your GP and hospital notes, which will then be obtained by your lawyer and sent by your solicitor to the medical expert.
These should be your full set of notes both prior to and following your accident.
The medical evidence is essential to prove causation of your injury by an accident and to show that the injury did not pre-exist prior to your accident taking place.
The medical expert will examine your GP and hospital notes for relevant entries, examine you to determine your current injury, discuss previous symptoms and provide a prognosis as to the future.
A prognosis – is the medical expert’s opinion as to what your future holds for recovery and how long you might suffer any on going symptoms.
This medical report combined with your original GP and hospital notes will be the primary evidence used to prove medical causation – in other words that your injuries were caused as a matter of law by the accident for which you hold some at fault for causing.
Take for example a road traffic accident.
Imagine you are at a set of lights in your car when unexpectedly you are hit from behind by another car. You suffer injury to your neck due to the violence of the collision and are taken immediately to hospital and are diagnosed with whiplash.
Your solicitor will instruct an orthopaedic medical expert to complete a report . That expert will look at your hospital notes to see that you reported the accident and what you were diagnosed with; he will check your GP notes to see if you have had neck problems prior to the accident and to see the treatment you have received: he may perform a scan or x ray to see if any vertebrae have been damaged or any degenerative spinal problems exist. You will be examined and a report will be completed showing the degree of whiplash you have suffered, how long it will take you to recover from your injuries and to show that the types of injury you have was caused by the car accident.
This medical report will then be used to prove causation – your whiplash injuries were caused by the accident you suffered.
To see how much compensation you can claim for whiplash or other injuries click how much UK injury compensation
