Both sides during a lawsuit will look at anything and everything that they can do to make their case. As plaintiff, all of the information pertaining to your injury or that of your family member is fair game, including your entire medical history unless something is completely remote in time or totally unrelated. A lot of otherwise personal information, such as private correspondence, social relationships, travel, and the like may also become part of the process.
What you Cannot Learn from a Lawsuit
Pretty much the same rule of thumb applies to the defendant. Painting a complete picture of what happened may involve looking at his or her correspondence, medical condition at the time of the event, and other issues.
However, one of the things that hardly ever comes out in court is the defendant’s history of similar injuries. The law says that each case is tried based on what happened this time, not on some other occasion. There are some exceptions to this, such as when a manufacturer gets information that is product is hurting people and doesn’t do anything about it. But if it’s an individual defendant, prior history good or bad usually does not come into evidence at trial.
