Prior Medical Records Sink Brain Injury Claim

The Supreme Court of Virginia has decided that a trial judge properly admitted prior medical records which were detrimental to a plaintiff's case.  The court upheld a $9,000.00 verdict.  

In a case tried in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County, the defense sought to admit into evidence prior medical records which supported its theory of the case that the plaintiff had suffered only a mild injury.  The plaintiff objected to the admissibility of the records but the Supreme Court ruled that these records were admissible under the "business records" exception to the hearsay rule.  The court also ruled that the plaintiff had failed to properly object to the admission of the medical records. 

Prior medical records and prior injuries must always be disclosed to your lawyer so that your lawyer can decide how to best handle the information.  Here the plaintiff had claimed a permanent traumatic brain injury yet apparently the prior records did not support that claim. 

The case is Arnold v. Wallace, from the Supreme Court of Virginia.