The Importance of Medical Evidence in Your Disability Case

Whether you’re applying for disability benefits or bringing a discrimination claim against your workplace, having hard evidence on your side will strengthen your case. Medical evidence is important in a disability case to show the nature of your disability, how it affects your day-to-day life, and which accommodations help you. Work with one of the disability lawyers at Rossman Law Group to gather this evidence and present it to the court.

Types of Medical Evidence

As you gather documentation to present your disability claim, note that it often falls under one of three categories:

Subjective

This is your experience of your disability, including your symptoms, changes in your quality of life, and the stress the condition causes you.

Objective

In contrast, objective evidence is not a matter of opinion. Lab tests, imaging, diagnostic results, and other factual medical documents fall under this category.

Medical Opinions

Any physicians that have examined and treated you may be asked to provide their professional opinions as evidence. Their medical training gives them a unique perspective that the court wants to hear when determining the outcome of your disability case.

Why Do You Need Medical Evidence?

When you bring a case with medical factors before the court, the outcome will be decided by legal experts—not medical experts. While you may hope that your subjective experience of your disability will sway that opinion, objective evidence is often a deciding factor. Individuals without medical training need to hear those objective facts explained in detailed layperson’s terms.

If you are applying for Social Security to receive disability benefits, your claim will be approved or denied by a claims analyst. Alternatively, if you enlist a disability attorney in Boise, Idaho, to help you sue your employer for discrimination, a judge—and possibly a jury—will decide the validity of your claim.

Which Records Are Relevant?

As you and your attorney gather evidence, beware of piling on too much documentation. You don’t necessarily need to hand over your entire medical history; keep it limited to evidence that is applicable to the disability in question. For example, if you use a wheelchair due to lower-limb paralysis, the court may not need to hear about a sprained finger or a history of headaches.

Why is medical evidence important to disability cases? Objective facts are the backbone of many Social Security applications and disability discrimination claims. In order to make an informed decision about your case, the relevant parties need to know exactly how the disability affects your life.