If you are pursuing, or have pursue in the past, a personal injury compensation claim, then you are more than likely aware of the importance of medical reports. A medical report is key in any personal injury claim as it helps Solicitors and Barristers to properly value your claim.
If a medical report is wrong, incomplete or inaccurate then this could have serious repercussions for you and your payout. Obviously this is why we always check if you are happy with a medical report before disclosing it to the other side. Once a report is disclosed to the other side you cannot seek to get the report amended. A medical report is only disclosed to the other side once you have confirmed that you agree with its contents.
So, if you receive a medical report and you are not happy with it, what can you do? First of all you should take some time in studying the report, bearing in mind that a medical expert will have got the information from you at examination and he or she may have also used information from medical records such as GP and Hospital records, accident reports etc. You should clearly state to your Solicitor which parts of the medical report you agree with and which parts of the medical report you do not agree with. Also state the reasons why you do not agree with certain parts of the report. Simply saying “I do not agree with the report” is not really of much help.
It is perhaps better to set out your reasons in writing, whether by letter or by email. You should clearly explain why you do not agree with certain parts of the report, for example is the information wrong, inaccurate or incomplete? Suggest what could be changed. For example a report could read something along the lines of “Mr A struggled to do any gardening duties for approximately 2 weeks following the accident.” You may agree that the statement is correct but you may suggest that you struggled for 3 to 4 weeks for example. Obviously always be truthful and in addition, try and be as accurate as you can.
A medical expert will always consider reasonableness; whether a comment is reasonable in respect of the severity of the accident and the severity of your injuries. If a medical expert believes that you are over exaggerating your symptoms and that the symptoms suggested are out of proportion in respect of the accident, then this would be stated in the report. Therefore the best advice I can give is to be as honest and as accurate as possible. Bear in mind that the medical expert’s duty is to the court.
So with a medical report you can seek to get amendments to it, but this is at the discretion of the expert. Always make sure you are happy with a report before agreeing to the same, as soon as the report is disclosed to the other side you will not be able to seek amendments. Even with minor details, if something is not correct you should clearly point this out to your Solicitor.
