Prior injuries and pre-existing conditions
Almost everyone over thirty has something: an old back strain, a knee that twinges, a documented visit to a chiropractor a decade ago. The insurer will find it. What determines whether it damages your claim is entirely how it comes to light.
The rule in your favor
California follows the eggshell plaintiff principle: a defendant takes the victim as they find them. Someone who is more vulnerable to injury because of age, a prior condition or an unusual susceptibility does not recover less for that reason.
The practical form of this is that aggravation of a pre-existing condition is compensable. If you had a degenerative disc that never caused you a day's trouble, and a collision turned it into radiating leg pain and three months off work, the claim is for that change — not for the disc.
What you cannot recover is the condition you already had. The task is to establish the baseline and then the departure from it.
Why concealment is so costly
This is also why a casual "no" to an adjuster's question about prior problems is so dangerous. It is asked early, answered without thought, and recorded.
Building the baseline
The work is showing what you could do before and what changed. The more specific and the more documented, the better.
- Prior imaging is an asset. A scan from three years ago showing a stable disc and no nerve involvement is the strongest possible answer to a degeneration argument.
- Attendance and work records. No absences before, absences after.
- Treatment frequency. Two chiropractic visits in 2019 is a very different baseline from monthly visits throughout 2025, and the distinction is in the records.
- Activity evidence. Gym check-ins, race entries, a league roster, photographs doing the thing you can no longer do.
- People who knew you. Specific, concrete testimony about what changed is more persuasive than any adjective.
A second collision
Being injured again while a claim is running is genuinely complicated, and it happens more often than people expect. Each defendant will point at the other.
The key is a clear medical record separating what was attributable to each event: your condition immediately before the second incident, and what changed after it. Tell every treating doctor about both, and tell whoever is handling your first claim immediately. Attempting to keep the two separate makes it much worse.
Questions people ask
I had a back injury years ago. Does that end my claim?
No. California's eggshell plaintiff rule means a defendant takes you as they find you, and aggravating a pre-existing condition is compensable. What matters is establishing your baseline before the incident and the change after it.
Should I tell them about my old injury?
Yes, early. They will obtain your records regardless. Disclosed up front it is a baseline. Discovered after you said there was nothing, it becomes a credibility problem — and credibility is worth far more to your claim than the old injury could ever cost it.
I was in another accident while my claim was ongoing.
Tell your doctors and whoever is handling the claim straight away. Each defendant will try to attribute your condition to the other event, so a clear medical record of your state immediately before the second incident, and what changed after it, is what sorts it out.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
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