In today’s video, Attorney Ben Schwartz begins a four-part video series giving facts and answering a question regarding Independent Medical Examinations versus Defense Medical examinations, or IME vs DME in Personal Injury cases.

Hi, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today we are going to start a series of videos on IME’s and  DME’s in personal injury cases. IME stands for an independent medical exam and DME stands for defense medical exam. Depending on the context of your case, it may be called an IME or maybe called DME.

In a personal injury case, like a car accident case or a slip and fall case, you get an independent medical exam. In a Delaware workers’ compensation case, you get a defense medical exam. The reason being that in workers’ compensation cases, there is a rule that says you cannot refer to it as an independent medical exam, which basically acknowledges the truth of what it is. It is supposed to be a neutral doctor examining you, after your accident, to determine what further medical treatment you need to determine whether you need to remain out of work, to determine the extent of your injury. It is supposed to be a neutral, detached evaluation by a doctor who is not the treating physician, who can then report back to the insurance company that is either paying the bills or is liable for paying the claim, as to the nature and extent of the injuries.
It rarely is what it is supposed to be.

In practice, what you get are doctors that do a lot of this type of work. They are always paid by insurance companies. They look for ways to give favorable opinions or favorable testimony for insurance companies. One of the main ways in personal injury and workers’ compensation cases people are victimized twice is through the IME or DME process because unscrupulous doctors do not give truthful opinions to the insurance companies. They give helpful opinions to the insurance companies at the expense of injured drivers, injured motorists, injured passengers, and injured workers.
I want to do a series of videos on IME’s and DME’s in personal injury cases so that people out there in the community know what the process is and understand it. I want to give out information about the process so that people are not afraid of the process. There are mechanisms for attorneys like me to correct the deficiencies and the irregularities caused by dishonest doctors who do insurance company exams. Basically, I want to do a video series so that people know about this and how it works in personal injury cases. So keep watching, we are going to go through a list of questions one at a time and do a series of videos on IME’s and DME’s in personal injury cases.

I am Attorney Ben Schwartz, if you like this video series or have follow-up questions send me an email below. Thanks for watching!