An “independent” medical examination is requested by the defence and performed by a doctor the defence selects and pays. It is an evidence-gathering exercise, not treatment, and understanding that distinction is the single most useful thing to know before attending.
Why it happens
Once you put your physical condition in issue by claiming damages for it, the other side is generally entitled to have it examined. Court rules permit an examination where condition is genuinely in controversy, and in workers’ compensation and some insurance contexts the right can arise from the policy or statute instead.
The resulting report typically addresses whether the injury was caused by the incident, whether treatment was reasonable and necessary, whether you have reached maximum medical improvement, and what restrictions and impairment remain. Disputing causation is the most common purpose.
No treatment, and no ordinary confidentiality
The examiner is not your doctor. They will not treat you, will not follow up, and owe you none of the usual duties of a treating physician. Nothing you say is confidential in the way it would be with your own clinician — everything, including casual remarks in the waiting room, can appear in the report.
Assume the examination begins before the appointment does. Observation of how you get out of the car or move in the corridor is fair material, and surveillance is sometimes scheduled around the same day.
How to approach it
- Be accurate, not brave and not dramatic. Understating symptoms because you dislike complaining will be quoted back as evidence of recovery. Overstating them is worse: an examiner who concludes you exaggerated undermines your entire claim, including the parts that are objectively true.
- Describe a normal range. Good days and bad days, with examples, rather than a single snapshot.
- Answer what is asked. Volunteering an unrelated history invites an alternative explanation for your symptoms.
- Note the practicalities — arrival and departure times, how long the physical examination actually lasted, what was and was not tested. Reports sometimes describe testing that a brief appointment could not have included.
- Ask your lawyer about an observer or a recording. Whether either is permitted varies by jurisdiction, and permission is usually arranged in advance.
The report is evidence, not a verdict
An unfavourable report does not end a claim. It is one opinion, formed in a single appointment, by someone retained by the opposing party — and that context is itself something the jury hears. Treating physicians who observed the condition over months, and objective findings such as imaging and surgical results, are weighed against it. See what evidence actually proves damages and Medical.
General information only, not legal or medical advice. Rules on examinations, observers and recording differ by jurisdiction — take advice from your own lawyer before attending.