Fighting Accusations of Malingering in Brain Injury Cases

If you have been in an accident, the last sort of injury you want to endure outside loss of limb is a brain or spinal injury. These injuries can be debilitating, and permanently so. However, alongside that, brain and spinal injuries are some of the most complicated issues both medically and legally. Even if you were to have a limb amputated in an accident, you will have permanent loss, but at least it is a visible injury and easy to get compensation for.

However, if you have a spine or brain injury, it can be more difficult to get compensation for because it is not always an injury that you can physically see. Worse yet, there may come accusations of malingering – otherwise known as faking.

If there is no physical sign of trauma, such is often the case with brain injuries, you might hear the term malingering thrown around by the insurance company that doesn’t want to pay. They are essentially saying that you are faking a brain injury for more compensation. The complicated thing is that proving a brain injury often requires expensive tests that only cause the amount they need to pay to rise.

Preventing Malingering Accusations After a Brain Injury

After an accident, if you have endured head trauma or were in a car accident that caused your neck (and thus your head) to snap back and forth, there are a number of tests your doctor may want to run. If you are visiting your family doctor after an accident as you didn’t need ER treatment, you may want to ask them to refer you to a specialist if they suspect you may have brain injuries. Insurance companies are often quick to question the diagnosis of a family physician, but it is much harder to call into question the diagnosis of a specialist that you have been unaffiliated with.

When visiting a specialist, you will want to be candid with them in order to avoid any potential accusations of malingering later. You may not be aware of any periods of lost consciousness, and it is often not recorded on most EMT reports. However, you will want to mention any periods of confusion or trouble speaking. In many cases this is just a simple concussion, but a brain or spine specialist will still want to run some tests to make sure you are okay.

There are a number of diagnostic tests to find and diagnose brain injuries and their severity. Each are used for specific suspected problems, but at very least you will be looking at either an MRI or CT scan to get a better look at what is going on inside your head. If the specialist finds anything wrong, they may want to do further tests. However, during this period, you will want to record what tests you had done, the results, and the price for later compensation.

What to Do If Your Insurance Company Calls You a Faker

If you went to a specialist, it will cut down the chances of your insurance company accusing you of malingering, but they can still try it because of how complex brain injuries can be. In most cases, they will request a medical exam from one of their doctors. If there really is something wrong, they have an oath not to lie about it.

However, because brain injuries are so complex, you will definitely want a lawyer by your side to defend your rights and help you get the compensation you deserve. If you have been in an accident and need help, contact us today to see what the Law Firm of Freeman & Freeman can do for you.