Medical Record Authorization – What You Can Limit it to in Oklahoma

Jeremy Thurman

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 412

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One interesting tactic insurance defense attorneys and adjusters are taking in car accidents, medical malpractice cases, trucking accidents or any other type of personal injury claim involving injuries is to request every medical record under the sun and hope to find some basis from their hired guns (doctors who will write an opinion no matter the reasonableness of it) to say it was pre-existing and thus limit the amount they are willing to pay or confuse the jury. 

Typically in an auto accident case or trucking accident case where a person is not represented by an attorney, the adjusters will get a blanket authorization and are willing to obtain every record under the sun.  In Oklahoma, you do not have to give them the blanket authorization.  Simply, you can only authorize records that relate to the injury itself.

The Supreme Court in Nitzel v Jackson, 879 P2d 1222 (Okla. 1994) said that only prior records

“… relating to injuries claimed to have been caused by tort-feasor are relevant…”