Complete and accurate medical records are essential to the just resolution of medical malpractice claims. New Jersey Courts have made this clear:
” [A] physician’s duty to a patient [includes] his affirmative obligation to maintain the integrity, accuracy, truth, and reliability of the patient’s medical record. His obligation in this regard is no less compelling than his duties respecting diagnosis and treatment of the patient since the medical community must, of necessity, be able to rely on those records in the continuing and future care of the patient.” In Re Jascalevich License Revocation, 182 N.J. Super 455, 471-472 ( App. Div. 1982)
If a patient pursuing a medical malpractice claim can prove to a New Jersey Court that her physician fraudulently concealed the truth about her care by withholding, altering, or destroying relevant records, the Court can instruct the jury to presume that the missing evidence would have helped her, and can also instruct the jury to consider awarding the patient “punitive damages” to punish the physician for his fraudulent conduct.
In addition, the New Jersey legislature has criminalized the intentional alteration of medical records:
” A person is guilty of a crime of the 4th degree if he purposefully destroys, alters or falsifies any record relating to the care of a medical or surgical or podiatric patient in order to deceive or mislead any person as to information, including, but no limited to, a diagnosis, test, medication, treatment or medical or psychological history concerning the patient.” N.J.S.A. 2C:21-4.1
When a patient asks an attorney to investigate the merits of her medical malpractice claim against a doctor or hospital, it quickly hits home that the attorney must work with medical records created and controlled by that doctor or hospital. This is just one of the many reasons its essential that the patient hire a highly experienced New Jersey Medical Malpractice Attorney to handle her case.