What is an IME, the defense medical exam, and how do I handle it?

What the exam is, and who that doctor works for

When your physical or mental condition is at the center of a lawsuit, Texas procedure allows the defense to seek an examination, by agreement or by court order on a showing of good cause, conducted by a physician of its choosing. Understand the economics without cynicism or naivety: the examiner is a retained defense expert, compensated by the defense, often a repeat player whose reports the local carriers know by heart, and the examination is not treatment, creates no doctor-patient relationship, and exists to generate testimony. None of that makes the exam improper; all of it makes preparation rational.

How the appointment actually goes

Expect a records review the doctor has already completed, a history taken in the doctor's words, a focused physical examination, and a total encounter often far shorter than the report it produces. Your rules are few and absolute. Be scrupulously honest: the examiner has your records and your deposition, and any inconsistency, in either direction, becomes the report's theme. Describe your condition accurately across its range, the bad days and the better ones, without minimizing to seem tough or amplifying to seem hurt; effort tests and consistency checks are built into these exams, and genuine presentation defeats them by existing. Answer what is asked, volunteer nothing beyond it, and afterward, immediately, write down everything: start and stop times, what was examined and for how long, what was said. Whether a companion or recording is permitted varies by court and agreement, which is exactly the kind of logistics your lawyer coordinates before the date.

The report, and its greatest hits

You are entitled to the examiner's report, and its conclusions are rarely surprising: the strain has resolved, the findings are subjective, the imaging is degenerative, the symptoms exceed the objective evidence. The rebuttal is structural, not rhetorical: treating physicians who saw you dozens of times against an examiner who saw you for twenty minutes, objective findings the report had to concede, and cross-examination on volume, compensation, and the remarkable consistency of the doctor's conclusions across hundreds of cases. Built properly, the defense exam becomes a credibility contest the defense loses in front of a jury, which is a fight this firm has prepared for and relishes.

Before yours is scheduled

Never attend a defense exam unprepared or uncounseled, and never treat it as a formality. Silver Key Law preps every client before the appointment, papers the logistics in advance, and builds the rebuttal before the report arrives, and if a defense exam is on your calendar, the consultation that gets you ready is free.

Injured in Arizona? Some rules on this page are Texas-specific. Arizona differs on points that change outcomes, including pure comparative fault and government-claim deadlines. See our Arizona answers or call (888) 508-6967.

Related: Your Deposition · Pre-Existing Conditions · Submit Your Case · All Common Questions

This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.