{"id":2573,"date":"2021-12-14T04:13:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T04:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2021-12-17T09:22:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T09:22:46","slug":"do-pi-plaintiffs-have-to-preserve-their-bodies-for-an-ime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/do-pi-plaintiffs-have-to-preserve-their-bodies-for-an-ime\/","title":{"rendered":"Do PI plaintiffs have to preserve their bodies for an IME?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spoliation of evidence occurs when a party to a case fails to preserve evidence or intentionally destroys evidence.\u00a0 Oftentimes, the spoliation results in a party being deprived of vital evidence.\u00a0 In a personal injury case, the issue usually arises in the context of the destruction or repair of property or items that are important to a case. For example, the destruction of a vehicle in a case alleging defective brakes, or the paving of a walkway in a trip and fall case, may be deemed spoliation of evidence.<\/p>\n<p>What if the object that is the subject of a spoliation claim is the plaintiff\u2019s own body. Does a bodily injury need to be preserved as evidence?<\/p>\n<p>A New York appeals court recently addressed the issue.\u00a0 On December 7, 2021, the Appellate Division, First Department, threw out a lower court\u2019s decision sanctioning a plaintiff who had surgery to address an injury in a case in which she was asserting that the injury was caused by the defendant\u2019s negligence.\u00a0 The plaintiff did not appear for an independent medical examination scheduled by the defense attorney in March 2019, which was then rescheduled to May 2019, but when the plaintiff appeared at the rescheduled examination, she disclosed the spine surgery she had on month earlier, in April. \u00a0The lower court found that undergoing the surgery prior to appearing for the examination was spoliation of evidence, and sanctioned the plaintiff.<\/p>\n<p>The Appellate Division overturned the decision, and found that spoliation applies only to a party\u2019s destruction of inanimate objects, not one\u2019s body, and that a finding otherwise would be counter to our belief in personal liberty and control over our bodies.<\/p>\n<p>The decision in <u>Gillian v. UNI Holdings, LLC<\/u> is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leagle.com\/decision\/innyco20211207281\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>AcroDocz retrieves, reviews and summarizes medical records and bills for law firms and their experts.\u00a0 The chronologies created by AcroDocz contain a concise, factual, and informative summary of a client\u2019s treatment, and can be utilized at any stage of a case. To speak with a representative or view a sample chronology please contact AcroDocz at <a href=\"mailto:info@acrodocz.com\">info@acrodocz.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/blog\/importance-of-an-accurate-complete-summary-of-medical-records\/%22tel:786-633-3100\">(786) 633-3100.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Appellate Division threw out a decision sanctioning a plaintiff who had surgery. The plaintiff did not appear for an independent medical examination. Click on the link to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Do PI plaintiffs have to preserve their bodies for an IME?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Appellate Division threw out a decision sanctioning plaintiffs who had surgery. The plaintiff did not appear for an independent medical examination.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/do-pi-plaintiffs-have-to-preserve-their-bodies-for-an-ime\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do PI plaintiffs have to preserve their bodies for an IME?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spoliation of evidence occurs when a party to a case fails to preserve evidence or intentionally destroys evidence. Oftentimes, the spoliation results in a party being deprived of vital evidence, and it can lead to sanctions. In a personal injury case, the issue usually arises in the context of the destruction or repair of property or items that are important to a case. However, is it possible for a party to spoliate their own body? An appellate court recently addressed this issue. 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