West Virginia Injuries

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Search results for “discovery rule”

20 results

screening guideline

Not a guarantee, a diagnosis, or a one-size-fits-all rule, a screening guideline is a medical recommendation about who should be tested for a disease, when testing should...

That ladder folded, and now every insurer is trying to disappear

A farm worker in Morgantown got hurt when a defective ladder collapsed, and now the farm, the ladder company, and multiple insurers are all dodging the bill while a structured settlement gets pushed across the table.

ARTICLE by Earl Braxton

Delayed Head Symptoms After a Roadside Work Injury

A roadside crew leader in West Virginia may not be stuck with the crash date if concussion symptoms showed up late and the real harm was not obvious at first.

ARTICLE by Sandra Elswick

loss of chance doctrine

You just got a letter that says a doctor's delay "reduced the patient's chance of survival," and now the phrase shows up in medical records, insurance papers, or a lawyer's...

failure to diagnose

A healthcare provider did not identify a medical condition when reasonable care likely would have. "Did not identify" can mean missing the condition entirely, dismissing...

Can a trucking company erase the black box after a Charleston wreck?

Yes - unless someone moves quickly, a trucking company can legally lose or overwrite key data in the normal course of business. That surprises most people. The truck's...

delayed diagnosis

Money and case value often turn on timing: when a serious condition is found late, treatment can become harder, more expensive, and less effective. A delayed diagnosis happens...

Can your immigration status sink a Charleston van fire claim?

A rear-end crash that turns into a vehicle fire is bad enough, and the insurer will still try to turn a minor violation and immigration fear into leverage.

ARTICLE by Roderick Lyons

differential diagnosis

A dangerous mistake can happen when symptoms are treated like a quick guess instead of a careful process: a serious condition gets missed, treatment goes the wrong way, and the...

My kid was buried in a Huntington trench and now two states are fighting over who has to pay

A parent is trying to sort out a trench-collapse injury in Huntington when the child lives across the river and every insurer starts talking about "the other state."

ARTICLE by Rhonda Hatfield

unreasonable delay

Not every slow response is an unreasonable delay. Insurance claims can take some time when records are missing, injuries are still being evaluated, or the facts are genuinely...

A missed abnormal finding can cost money, health, and legal leverage because treatment may be delayed while a condition worsens. In a claim, that delay can affect the value of...

Morgantown insurer offered $8,000 after a drunk-driver wreck - too fast?

A drunk-driver crash can leave a postal worker with real psychological injuries, and in West Virginia the clock keeps running even while the insurer acts like an early ER discharge means nothing serious happened.

ARTICLE by Tom Ratliff

bad faith penalties

Insurers and defense lawyers sometimes use this phrase as if it means a routine fine that automatically gets added whenever a claim is denied or delayed. They may also suggest...

index of suspicion

A low index of suspicion can be the difference between a patient being sent home and a dangerous condition being caught before it gets much worse. The phrase means a...

What trips people up most is that a wrong diagnosis is not automatically medical malpractice. A clinician can make a difficult judgment call and still meet the accepted...

pattern and practice

What trips people up is this: one ugly claim decision usually is not enough. A pattern and practice means repeated conduct that shows a company is doing the same wrongful thing...

What happens if I tell the insurer about my old back MRI?

A common mistake is hiding the old MRI because it feels like handing the insurance company a weapon. In nearby Virginia, the fight over pre-existing injuries can get framed a...

preponderance of evidence

51% is the idea behind this standard: not absolute proof, just enough evidence to show something is more likely true than not. The phrase comes out of old English civil courts,...

My elbow may end my job before the missing records ever turn up

A Parkersburg meatpacking worker with a repetitive-use elbow injury can get trapped between workers' comp, outside insurers, and bad charting faster than most people expect.

ARTICLE by Rhonda Hatfield