After any type of accident or injury involving a lawsuit or an insurance company, you will need copies of your medical records. Medical records help establish the facts of the case and are one of the basic metrics used to determine damages or compensation for a Denver motorcycle injury.

In our adversarial legal system, people and businesses generally won’t pay unless they have to, regardless of fault. So the first thing the medical records do is establish that an injury or condition was caused by the car accident. If you do not have a Denver personal injury attorney, unscrupulous insurance adjusters may try to claim that your injuries were pre-existing. As a plaintiff, you have the burden of proving your case against any attack.

Of course, you may also need to know how to access and distribute your records if your injury requires specialist care.

Outside of motorcycle injuries, medical malpractice lawsuits typically revolve around medical records, which can mean the doctor is reluctant to release them. However, you have the right to access all of your records because of a law called the Federal Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. In general, the law provides that you have access to your own records or those of another person if you are your representative or guardian. The executors of estates also have access to the records of the deceased party. You can also request the records if you are related to the deceased and their history of illnesses may shed light on your own problems.

There are some exceptions to the records you can access. These are typically not important to your Denver injury attorney unless your case is related to psychotherapy or may put you in jeopardy. The law requires the medical provider to give you the records within 30 days, or provide a written reason for the delay. Of course, some state laws give patients more rights. Colorado patient injury laws are a bit stricter. If you need the records and the hospital does not provide them, you may need to hire an attorney. This usually only happens when there is a medical malpractice lawsuit pending.

The doctor or hospital may charge you a reasonable fee for the records, and sometimes the records are not complete if they are made up of several different specialists. You may need to submit requests to each doctor to obtain your complete medical history. It is always best to have as complete a medical history as possible before going to court as a car accident victim.