ABCs of Personal Injury series | What is an IME?

Jim knows that personal injury can be complicated to an outsider viewer. In this video Jim discusses what exactly an IME is and what value it serves in the legal process. Learn more about Personal Injury, our practice and how we can help you https://www.leonicklaw.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/
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Transcription:
Hello. I'm Jim Leonick of Leonick Law. And today, I'd like to speak a little bit about the ABCs of personal injury law. This is part of a series. I've spoken about depositions — also known as EBTs in New York. Today, I'm going to speak about IMEs. What's an IME? It's an acronym, obviously — stands for something. And in the personal injury world, it stands for Independent Medical Exam. However, it's a misnomer. Independent is far from what it is. These exams are scheduled by insurance companies. Sometimes your insurance company, if you're receiving benefits from them like no-fault benefits or disability benefits, worker's comp benefits. Other times they're scheduled by insurance carriers or defense attorneys in your litigation case. So, if you brought a lawsuit against someone as part of the litigation discovery process, the other side is entitled to have you examined by one of their doctors. Sometimes it's more than one doctor, depending upon the types of injuries you're claiming. It may be an orthopedist, neurologist an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, etc. So, why do you go to these exams? Well, you go to the exam because they're entitled to have their doctor examine you and give a report saying whether they believe after reviewing your medical records and doing an exam where they give a physical, whether they believe you have any lingering effects from whatever injury or accident you were involved in. So, sometimes we provide you with a representative to go with you — depends upon the circumstances of your case — every case is a little different — and they will lead you through the process. Other times we talk to you about the protocols. We provide you with written information about what to expect, what to say, what not to say in general. And important for you to remember — that the doctor is not there to treat or diagnose you. The doctor that's there is not your friend, although they may try to be very friendly to you so they can gather more information. And the idea is they're going to do a quick exam, sometimes five minutes or less, and they will review medical records that were provided by the defense firm or the insurance company, and then they write a report, many times looking to write a report saying that you may have sustained an injury but you're fine, or you sustained an injury and that injury really was superimposed on pre-existing problems that you had and, nevertheless, you're fine. You can go to work, and there really is no existing disability that you should be compensated for. That's their job, and that's how they get more work. If they would say you were fine ... that you weren't fine, and that you have a problem, then that would... wouldn't be good for their case or their clients. So therefore, their job is to say that there's nothing wrong with you. When you go to one of these exams, it means that you're closer to resolving your case, which is good news. And this is just one more part of the ABCs of personal injury law. I'm Jim Leonick of Leonick Law, and I'm happy to help you with your personal injury case.