Medical Documentation to Support Your Non-Economic Pain and Suffering Damages
For any lawsuit that includes claims of emotional or physical damage, it is common, and often necessary to produce supporting medical documentation. Alleging injury due to an employer’s conduct can result in compensatory damages, meaning emotional distress, pain and suffering, and mental anguish, as well as out of pocket costs for medical, psychological, or physical treatments.
A jury evaluating whether to award a large verdict will want to make sure that an employee’s claims of mental or physical damages are substantiated, and will do so by requesting your medical records. The process begins by signing an authorization form for your medical records to be retrieved from providers. From there, you can anticipate that you will be questioned during deposition regarding the medical records and asked to explain why you suffered injury.
For compensatory damage, it benefits an employee to have evidence of both “actual injury, which requires a degree of specificity; and may be supported by corroborating testimony or medical or psychological evidence” as well as “a causal relationship between the discriminatory conduct and the emotional harm”. By providing medical documentation to your attorney, you are giving them the ability to establish these evidentiary requirements.
At Hurwitz Law PLLC, we understand that the idea of providing sensitive medical information is very scary for privacy reasons, but the medical records provided during the court of litigation will be kept confidential. What you need to understand is that access to medical records is not meant to invade your privacy, but instead establish that the injuries you suffered can be corroborated by your medical history. If you have or are currently experiencing mental or physical distress due to your work, please email [email protected]. We can help!