When you’ve been injured due to the negligence of another, seeking medical treatment should be your first priority. However, sometimes getting the right treatment is important from both a medical and a legal standpoint. The terms medical management and maximal medical improvement, while medical in nature, have definitive legal implications in personal injury cases as one expert explains.

Medical management

You want to make sure that you’re getting the right medical care and that you’re getting it from doctors who understand the nature of the problem and can help you medically – and legally, according to Eric Block, a Florida injury attorney whose practice concentrates on personal injury claims and trial work related to those claims. He explained:

Some doctors are very conservative and don’t believe that people are hurt unless they’re missing a limb. Others are more liberal and understand when people are hurt. For example, the gold standard these days in determining whether you have a disk injury is the MRI as it can show the actual injury. However, just because an injury doesn’t show up on an MRI doesn’t mean that it’s not there – it just means that it’s the best technology that we have. It’s not foolproof.

So, if you’re the unfortunate one that has problems with pain radiating down your arm and your doctor does a neck MRI and nothing shows up, certain doctors will say sorry, but you’re making it up, I don’t believe you or nothing exists. When in fact, that may not be true because the medical literature tells us that you can have a very real, very painful, organic injury to your neck causing radiating pain, but it just doesn’t show up on MRI because MRI’s can’t show everything.

Maximal medical improvement

Maximal medical improvement means that you have basically gotten as good as you’re going to get. You’ve been treated by doctors and you’ve reached a medical plateau; wherein from a medical standpoint, it is not expected that the injured person is going to significantly improve past that point. Block says that this is also a very important term. He told us:

Maximal medical improvement doesn’t mean they’re cured. It doesn’t mean they’re back to where they were before they got hurt. They still may need medical care for the rest of their lives, but they’re not going to get any better. I can’t advise a client on the value of their case until they’ve reached maximum medical improvement because a lot of my clients may have been involved in a car accident, treat with doctors, get better and don’t have a permanent injury. So, they’re back to where they were before the car accident. While that’s good for them as a person, it obviously limits the value of their case.

So, understandably, clients come to me and ask how valuable their case may be, but until they reach maximum medical improvement, I can’t give them an answer until I know their doctors’ prognosis. Obviously, your case is worth a lot more money if you have to deal with pain and more medical care for the rest of your life as opposed to if you don’t.

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of another, contact a Florida injury attorney to discuss your situation. The consultation is free, without obligation and strictly confidential.