Confidentiality of Medical Records

Confidentiality of Medical Records

You have recently been injured due to another person’s negligence (the “Incident”). The injuries are ongoing and starting to affect your daily living. You are considering starting a lawsuit but are hesitant because of a story you heard from your friend when they started a lawsuit. The friend told you that all of their personal information was no longer private, even the conversations they had with their doctor.

The truth of the matter is that the legal process is both private/confidential as well as public. The confidential portion of the legal process is that information you share is only made available to your lawyer and the opposition’s lawyer. There are very strict rules controlling lawyers and how they deal with information provided to them by clients. The public aspect arises if a lawsuit goes to trial, the public is at liberty to watch the trial and read any decisions that a judge makes with regard to the lawsuit. Quite often, especially in cases involving personal injury, one’s medical information becomes relevant and therefore potentially available to the public.

When it comes to medical reports not all of one’s medical history is necessarily relevant. A lot depends on the nature of the lawsuit one brings. For example, if from the Incident you are claiming that an injury to your arm is affecting your livelihood, then medical records pre-dating the Incident that relate to your arm should be disclosed.

The reason your medical history is disclosed is because it is necessary during the legal process to determine how much the Incident actually contributed to your current ailments.

The courts will always try to balance the privacy interests of plaintiffs against necessary document disclosure to ensure a fair trial. Only medical records that are considered relevant should be disclosed.