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This case teaches accident victims to be honest all the time to avoid losing a good case. This is another reason you should always involve a personal injury attorney in Florida in any Florida accident case. Just for lying, a plaintiff lost a case that he would have won easily.

The plaintiff was involved in an accident alleged to have been caused by the defendant and the defendant did not deny being the cause of the accident. Just to claim more money, the plaintiff claimed that he developed pain in his head, shoulders, and back after the accident.

This was what the defendant didn’t believe. He felt the only reason the plaintiff will develop such pains is if he already had it before the accident and to prove his case, he sought the medical records of the plaintiff at the discovery phase of the case. He asked the plaintiff to sign the release of his medical records and the plaintiff refused.

This was a costly mistake. He should have known that his refusal to sign the release of his medical records at that point only meant one thing: he was lying about his health. The defendant had to get a subpoena to be able to obtain the plaintiff’s medical records and it was discovered that he (plaintiff) had been treated for head, neck, and back pains just four months to that time.

Because of this, the court dismissed his case completely. If he had signed the release of his medical records, he would not have been sanctioned like that. What played out was the fact that he knew he had been treated for the pains and did not want the court to see that. It was obvious that he deliberately wanted to mislead the court.

He wasn’t satisfied with the judgment so, he appealed the case and the appellate court also upheld the judgment. So, he lost out completely because he lied about his condition. The appellate court decided to use the case as a deterrent to others that may also want to lie to mislead the court.

Apart from lying, the other mistake the plaintiff made was not involving a personal injury attorney in Florida. If he had done that, his lawyer may have advised him against telling lies because his medical records may be requested and chances are good that his lawyer may have prevented him from refusing to sign the release of his medical records after lying about his medical record.

Now the case has been dismissed and he won’t get a dime. If he had not lied, he may have been awarded some compensation. While it may not be as much as he wanted, it won’t be absolutely nothing. The major lesson to learn from the case is that you should never lie to seek compensation as it could backfire and you should always involve an a personal injury attorney in any accident case.