What To Do When Attorneys Do Not Understand What Injury Impairments Are

Many doctors have questions about how to handle attorneys and the lack of understanding that attorneys have about the injury market.

In order to get an attorney to understand the importance of having an impairment rating you need to understand it yourself.

Let’s go to the American Medical Association Fifth Edition Impairment Guides on loss, loss of use of or derangement of any body part, organ or organ system.  If you lose a limb, it was injured and deranged.  If a nerve was cut due to an injury you may not be able to use that limb.

Derangement is a misaligned part.  A severed spinal cord, fractured bone, herniated disc and excessive motion are all misalignments.  There is not one injury in the world that is not a derangement, so injuries inherently are impairments.

An impairment rating would meet criteria established by the AMA and is a way of determining how the injury affects the person’s life.  Duties under duress, according to the AMA Impairment Guides, are the things patients are no longer able to enjoy due to the injury.

All impairments are injuries and if an attorney says that they don’t want any impairment listed, essentially they have just said that they do not want to have an objective consensus-driven position on how the patient’s injury has negatively influenced their life.

You can not have an impairment without an injury and an impairment is a published document that identifies the negative impact to a person’s life due to an injury.  If an attorney doesn’t want it identified they don’t want it objectified.  If the injury is not identified how can you represent the injuries to an insurer or an employer?  How can the patient get access to any benefits they may be entitled to if there is no documentation of the injury or the negative effects is has had on the patient’s life?

A disability is how that injury, derangement or impairment affects the patient’s ability to earn a living.  As a doctor you must understand the terms impairment loss, loss the use of or derangement of any body part, organ or organ system which will make it easier to explain and educate the necessity to attorneys. 

If a doctor is in front of 20 attorneys who may want to do business with him and he can handle it seamlessly and instantly because he understands the subject matter, the more the attorney will trust and have confidence in the doctor as a referral source.

For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at www.smartinjurydoctor.com or check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.

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