Pre-Existing Conditions and Car Accident Claims — Your Rights

The Eggshell Plaintiff Rule

New York follows the eggshell plaintiff rule: a defendant must take the plaintiff as they find them. If a pre-existing condition made you more vulnerable to injury, the at-fault driver is still responsible for the full extent of your harm — even if a healthier person would have been less severely injured.

Aggravation Is Compensable

Even if your pre-existing condition was symptomatic before the accident, you have a valid claim if the accident aggravated it — made it significantly worse. New York law recognizes aggravation of pre-existing conditions as compensable injury.

Why Documentation Is Even More Critical

Insurance companies aggressively use pre-existing conditions to minimize claims — attributing all current symptoms to conditions that predate the accident. Your medical documentation must clearly distinguish what existed before versus what changed after the accident.

This requires: prior medical records showing pre-accident baseline, documentation of the change post-accident, and explicit physician opinion on the accident's role in the worsening.