Car accidents can cause major injuries, but the injuries can be even worse if the victim of an accident already had pre-existing conditions. If you have been struggling with major back problems for several years and are struck by another car, the trauma from the accident could cause your back problems to become much worse than they already were. Here are a few things you should understand if you were a victim of a car accident and had pre-existing back problems prior to the accident.

Insurance companies often fight to pay for injures that were pre-existing

When an insurance company is responsible to pay for a person's injuries from a car accident, they will ask the person if he or she had existing injuries. If so, they may try to minimize the injuries that actually resulted from the car accident and blame them on the existing injuries. The goal of this is to pay less for the settlement, and this is primarily because it can be hard to determine the difference between pain and problems from existing injuries and those that occurred from the car accident.

There are laws to protect eggshell plaintiffs

When a person has a pre-existing injury and is injured more from a car accident, the person is often called an "eggshell plaintiff." It can be very difficult in these situations to determine what types of injuries were actually caused by the car accident, but this is important. In addition, a person with pre-existing conditions is likely to experience more injuries from the same car accident compared to a person who did not have injuries prior to this.

For example, if you just had back surgery and were involved in an accident, the accident could mess up your back to a point where it cannot be fixed. The accident would not have had the same results for a person with a strong, healthy back. There are laws, therefore, are designed to protect people who are injured severely due to an accident and pre-existing injuries.

You will need a good lawyer to fight for you

To win a case like this and receive enough compensation, you will need a good lawyer that is familiar with eggshell plaintiffs. If you are suffering with major injuries from a recent car accident and are not having any luck settling with the insurance company, it would be wise for you to hire a car accident attorney to represent you.

Talk with an attorney like Hoffman, Hamer & Associates, PLLC for more information.