Obviously, allowing a jury access to an injured person’s medical treatment records is important in any Buffalo personal injury lawsuit. Unfortunately, admitting records without the person who prepared it appearing to authenticate it and testifying regarding the contents can be classified as hearsay evidence which a jury cannot consider. However, because it usually would be onerous to require every person who rendered treatment to appear before their records are admitted as evidence, the courts of New York frequently admit these records under what is known as the business record exception to the hearsay rule.
The business record exception to the hearsay rule allows for the admission in evidence of any writing or record if the judge finds that it was made in the regular course of any business and that it was the regular course of such business to make it, at the time of the act, transaction, occurrence or event it documents, or within a reasonable time thereafter.
Under this rule, the requirement for the personal appearance of all medical providers usually can be avoided in a personal injury lawsuit. Instead, the judge may allow admission of the records as proof of the treatment received.
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