When you hire a Buffalo personal injury lawyer to pursue damages in your case, that lawyer will usually request that you complete authorizations to obtain your medical records. These authorizations are required under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. This law bars your medical providers from releasing any information regarding your treatment without your consent.
When you put your health in dispute in a personal injury lawsuit, you waive several of your privacy rights regarding your medical treatment. Just as your attorney will want to be able to contact your treatment providers and obtain records related to your case, the defense also has a right to obtain your medical information so that they can conduct their own evaluation of your condition. As a result, as your case proceeds authorizations for the release of HIPAA protected information are likely to also be required by the defense.
Occasionally, the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit has unrelated medical information that they do not want released to the defense. If that plaintiff and his or her attorney determine that such information will not be released, the matter may ultimately end up in front of a judge. The judge may review the medical records, determine if they are relevant to the case, and then make a ruling as to whether they need to be released.
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