Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
How does an insurer, judge or jury assess one’s pain level? If their pain is not showing up on any x-ray, scan, or test result, then how does a Court truly know that the claimant is in pain; and in fact telling the truth?
What’s stopping somebody from simply making a claim that they’re disabled, and lying to their doctor and to the Court alike?
How do we know that somebody is telling the truth about their subjective pain, fatigue or other cognitive difficulties (loss of memory, sadness, fatigue, loss of concentration etc.)?
These are all very good questions. Believe it or not, our the way that personal injury claims and long term disability claims work in Ontario make it pretty clear who’s faking, and who’s not.
First, we have to draw a distinction between an objective injury vs a subjective injury. An objective injury is one that will show up on an xray, scan or test. A factured ankle. A broken femur. A cranial facture. A hematoma on the brain. All of these are injuries which will show up on a test, which any doctor, or non-medical person can likely see. It’s pretty hard for an insurer to refute an ankle fracture injury when the x-ray clearly shows that the ankle is fractured.
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