Legal cases fibromyalgia are increasing but often left unclaimed or not believed

Legal cases fibromyalgia. The number of legal cases fibromyalgia and medico-legal reports for fibromyalgia is on the increase.

The incidence of fibromyalgia starting after a trauma will expose a number of susceptible people to start their fibromyalgia symptoms after a road traffic accident (RTA) or an injury on duty (IOD). Fibromyalgia and whiplash is a typical situation.

The trauma suffered can also aggravate known fibromyalgia sufferers.

Many problems arise for those fibromyalgia sufferers as far as fibromyalgia medico-legal reports are concerned.

- The number one problem is the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Sometimes, it is not difficult if the fibromyalgia severe pain symptoms develop rapidly and reach a full picture in a short period of time.

The difficulty comes when the original trauma is somehow limited (just one knee for example) or minor. The expected improvement does not happen, a few other signs are creeping in and fatigue with disturbed sleep gets in. This is where the fibromyalgia diagnosis is missed. The reality of the complaints is doubted by insurances or defendants (if the fibromyalgia sufferer is the claimant).

- The second problem is the causation of the symptoms. This is more so that the genetic profile is pushed forward by the defendants.

- The third problem is the treatment, as the latest treatments for fibromyalgia are lifelong ones. About one third of our medico-legal expertises is made of fibromyalgia claimants.

It is frequent for defendants to claim cheating or at least exaggeration of symptoms by the fibromyalgia claimant. As experts, we do not like cheaters because not only they cheat the system but also they try to cheat us. We have many ways of finding them out. Obviously, we will not reveal our tricks because coaching is always a possibility.

But believe us, as much as we will back up a justified claim, we will not let go of a cheater! As for the genuine fibromalgia sufferer, we will use all the tools at our disposal to back their claim.

A word of caution: to be an expert witness for the Court means that we have to be independent. That means that we cannot be the carer for the fibromyalgia sufferer and at the same time the expert witness. So a choice has to be done: either be the carer and treat or be the expert witness and write a report and appear in Court if necessary.

It has happened that, being already a carer, a judge has allowed us to act as expert witnesses but this has to be an exception.

The same way as there is a huge number of undiagnosed and/or untreated fibromyalgia sufferers, there is a great number of unsupported genuine claims that should come forward as legal cases fibromyalgia. If, after a trauma, the pain carries on despite the usual treatments and has more symptoms appearing, fibromyalgia diagnosis should always be suspected.

If a claim can be made, it should!