Common Questions / Damages
Does a pre-existing condition ruin my injury case?
No. Texas law takes the injured person as the negligent party finds them, so a defendant who aggravates a vulnerable back or a prior injury owes for the aggravation, the worsening the crash caused, and the fight is about drawing that line with medical evidence, not about whether you had a history.
The eggshell plaintiff rule
Texas negligence law includes an old and humane principle: the wrongdoer takes the victim as he finds her. A defendant does not get a discount because the person he hit was fifty instead of twenty, had degenerative discs, an old work injury, or a surgically repaired knee. If the crash aggravated, accelerated, or lit up a condition that was quiet or manageable before, the aggravation is compensable, all of it, the new treatment, the new pain, the new limitations. What the defendant does not owe for is the condition's pre-crash baseline, and that boundary is where every one of these cases is fought.
How insurers weaponize your history
Expect the adjuster and later the defense lawyer to order every medical record you have generated for years, hunting for the same body part in any prior chart. The argument writes itself: the disc was already degenerated, the shoulder already ached, so the crash changed nothing. It is often medically dishonest, degenerative findings appear on the MRIs of most adults past thirty-five who have never had a symptom, and radiologists and treating physicians can say so. But the argument works against claimants who hid their history, because concealment converts a medical question the plaintiff can win into a credibility question the plaintiff cannot.
Building the before-and-after
The winning record draws a bright line. Before: what the prior records actually show, how the condition behaved, what treatment it needed, what you could do, corroborated by the people who watched you work and live. After: new imaging read against old imaging, treating physicians distinguishing baseline from aggravation, and the functional change in concrete terms, the shifts you now miss, the weight you can no longer lift. Sometimes the prior records become the plaintiff's best exhibit: five symptom-free years after the old injury, then a crash, then surgery, is a causation story a jury understands instantly.
The one rule that protects everything
Tell your lawyer and your doctors the complete history at the start, every prior injury, claim, and complaint, however stale it feels. Your lawyer can only defuse what is known; the defense already has the records, and their favorite moment in any deposition is the prior injury you forgot to mention. Handled honestly from day one, a pre-existing condition is a medical detail. Hidden, it becomes the case. Silver Key Law would far rather build around your history than be ambushed by it.
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: What Is My Case Worth? · Your Deposition · 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.
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