When developing a personal injury case, the hardest thing to prove to an insurance company or jury is how the client’s accident affects their life. It’s one thing to document and prove an injury via diagnostic tests that show a disc herniation, ligament tear; etc. but it doesn’t relay how those injuries affect their ability to perform work duties, ADL’s, or leisure activities.

These “loss of quality of life” variables are only documented through a Functional Capacity Evaluation. The skilled Functional Capacity Evaluator will spend 3-4 hours with the client assessing all aspects of their ability to perform functional tasks using their upper / lower extremities and core.

Typically, when a Functional Capacity Evaluation is included on a personal injury case, it presents to the insurance company with the client’s true functional limitations which drastically helps to get the case settled in mediation. Should the case go to trial, the jury can easily relate to functional losses documented in the Functional Capacity Evaluation much more than complicated diagnostic test outcomes and pathological conditions.

brad@injuryreportingconsultants.com