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(602) 345-1818Your lawsuit is filed, discovery is underway, and the other side’s attorney sends a request for you to be examined by a doctor you have never met. That is a defense medical examination, and in an Arizona accident lawsuit it is a normal part of the litigation process, not a sign anything went wrong. This article explains who requests the exam, why a court may order it, how scope and scheduling usually work, what happens with the examiner’s report, and how the findings can feed into fault and causation disputes. If you want the broader map of the claim lifecycle, our negligence overview covers the elements a filed case has to prove.
A defense medical examination is a discovery tool. When you file suit and claim that a crash injured your body or your mind, you place your physical or mental condition in controversy. Arizona civil procedure then allows the opposing party to ask the court to order an examination of that condition, and the scope and process follow the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure that govern discovery. The Arizona Judicial Branch keeps a general overview of how civil lawsuits and discovery proceed at azcourts.gov.
You will hear it called several things. Defense medical exam. DME. Rule 35 exam. Some lawyers and insurers still call it an “independent medical examination.” The label matters less than the posture: this exam happens inside an active lawsuit, and the doctor is retained by the side that disputes your claim.
Here is what most people do not realize. The exam is not a second opinion arranged for your benefit. It is evidence gathering. That does not make it improper or unfair. It makes it something you prepare for.
Once you put injuries at issue, the defense needs a medical opinion of its own. Your treating providers documented your care. The defense wants an evaluation it can use to test three things:
That is the purpose. The examiner produces a defense-retained medical opinion on those questions, separate from the opinions of the doctors who actually treated you. Calling that opinion “independent” is a habit of the industry, not an accurate description of who hired the examiner or why. If your claim includes ongoing care, the exam almost always touches on future medical expenses, because the defense wants to know whether those projected costs are supportable.
Timing matters too. A defense medical examination is typically requested by the insurer’s defense attorney after a lawsuit is filed, not during the pre-suit claim stage. Before a lawsuit exists, an insurer may ask you to attend an examination under a policy provision, and that is a contract question governed by your policy language, not a discovery order. Those two situations get conflated constantly, and they are not the same thing. If you are still deciding between a claim and a filed case, the difference between an insurance claim and a lawsuit is worth understanding first.
One more point on motive. The defense requesting an exam is doing its job, the same way the adjuster evaluating your claim is doing hers. An insurer still has obligations in how it handles a claim, and when those obligations are breached the analysis shifts into insurance bad faith territory. A routine exam request, standing alone, is not bad faith. It is procedure.
The exam is limited to the condition you placed in controversy. If your lawsuit claims a cervical spine injury and headaches, that is the territory. A plaintiff claiming only orthopedic injuries has a fair argument that broad psychological testing falls outside the scope. Examiner selection, exam location, and which tests are performed are generally either agreed to between the attorneys or set out in a court order that defines the boundaries.
Scope is where a lot of the real lawyering happens. It is easier to negotiate limits before an exam is scheduled than to unwind a problem afterward.
Scheduling normally follows a formal request or a court order in an active case. Counsel coordinate the date with reasonable notice so you can arrange time off work and travel. If the proposed location is unreasonably far or the date conflicts with your treatment, that is a conversation your attorney has with defense counsel, ideally in writing.
The examiner typically reviews medical records, imaging, and the pleadings before or during the exam. Which records get sent, and whether anything outside the condition at issue is included, is governed by the discovery rules and any order entered in the case. If there is a preexisting condition, assume it will be reviewed and addressed. Trying to hide it is worse than explaining it.
This is the question we get most, and the honest answer is that it depends. Whether you may bring a family member, whether your attorney or a nurse observer may be present, and whether audio or video recording is permitted is case specific. It is often resolved by court order or by a written stipulation between counsel. Local practice varies, and what one judge permits another may not. We have not verified a uniform statewide rule on observers or recording, and we would not tell you one exists. Do not assume you have a right to record. Get the answer in writing for the specific case before the exam date.
After the exam, the examiner generally prepares a written report. The report usually states the history taken, the findings on examination, the records reviewed, and opinions on diagnosis, causation, and expected future care. The procedures for exchanging that report, along with related records, are set by the discovery rules and whatever order applies in the case.
A report that disagrees with treating doctors is common. It is not the end of a case. It is one opinion that becomes evidence, subject to cross examination, deposition, and comparison against the treatment record that was created while you were actually being cared for. Contemporaneous records carry weight, which is one reason gaps in treatment tend to show up in defense reports as an argument that you recovered.
Practical guidance for the exam itself: be accurate, be complete, and do not perform. Describe your symptoms as they actually are, on good days and bad days. Do not exaggerate. Do not minimize either, because a polite “I’m fine, thanks” in the hallway can land in the report.
A defense medical examination is not treatment. No doctor patient relationship in the usual sense is formed, the examiner is not there to help you get better, and you should not expect prescriptions, referrals, or a treatment plan. The examiner’s assignment is to evaluate a disputed claim for the party that retained him.
Treating physicians are the opposite. They diagnose, they treat, they follow you over time, and their records reflect decisions made for your health rather than for litigation. Keep going to your appointments before and after the exam. The exam changes nothing about your care. If new symptoms appear, report them to your treating providers, not to the examiner.
Arizona’s comparative fault statute is A.R.S. § 12-2505. Read the text yourself, because the shorthand version people repeat is looser than the statute.
Subsection (A) provides that the defense of contributory negligence or of assumption of risk is in all cases a question of fact and shall at all times be left to the jury. It goes on to provide that if the jury applies either defense, the claimant’s action is not barred, but the full damages are reduced in proportion to the relative degree of the claimant’s fault which is a proximate cause of the injury or death, if any. Two qualifiers there are easy to lose in summary. The reduction runs only if the jury applies the defense, and only to the extent the claimant’s fault was a proximate cause. The same subsection states there is no right to comparative negligence in favor of a claimant who has intentionally, wilfully, or wantonly caused or contributed to the injury or wrongful death.
The statute addresses fault allocation. It does not address medical proof. But the two arguments meet in practice.
Here is how. The defense often runs two arguments at once: that you were partly responsible for the crash, and that your injuries are less severe or less connected to the crash than claimed. Exam findings feed the second argument. A report concluding that a disc herniation is degenerative rather than traumatic attacks causation. A report concluding you reached maximum improvement months ago attacks the damages figure. Combine either one with a fault argument and the defense’s valuation of the case drops from two directions.
That is why liability evidence and medical evidence get built together. How fault is proven in a Phoenix case and how injury causation is proven are separate showings that a jury hears in the same trial.
Roughly, the sequence looks like this:
The exam sits at step four. Because it only happens after a lawsuit exists, it has no effect on the deadline to file in the first place. Litigation timing can influence when the defense asks for an exam, but the filing clock runs on its own track.
On that deadline: A.R.S. § 12-542 requires that personal injury and death actions be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrues. Accrual is not automatically the crash date in every case, which is why “two years from the wreck” is a useful rule of thumb and a poor substitute for legal analysis. Other rules can change the math in either direction, including tolling provisions and the separate, shorter track that applies to claims against public entities and public employees. Missing a deadline is serious and can end a claim, but whether a particular deadline has actually run is a fact-specific question worth having reviewed rather than assumed.
We think you should know where this information comes from and where it stops.
Sources used. The procedural framework here comes from the Arizona Judicial Branch’s civil process overview and the text of A.R.S. § 12-2505 and A.R.S. § 12-542. Statutory language above is paraphrased rather than quoted in full. Read the statutes directly for the operative text.
What we did not include. We have not published settlement figures, valuation ranges, or outcome statistics tied to defense medical examinations, because we do not have verified data on that and would rather leave a gap than fill it with a number we cannot support.
What varies. Observer presence, recording, examiner selection, and report-exchange timing are governed by the discovery rules and by the order or stipulation in a specific case. Judges and divisions handle these differently. Rules also change. Anything described here as “typical” is a general pattern, not a prediction about how a particular judge will rule.
Who wrote it. Jared J. Pehrson is an Arizona-licensed attorney whose practice focuses on car accident and personal injury cases in Phoenix and across Arizona. He handles these matters personally rather than routing them through an intake process.
Treat this article as background, not as advice about a particular exam notice sitting on your kitchen table.
If a court has ordered the exam in a filed lawsuit, attendance is generally required, and failing to appear can carry consequences in the case. If the request is informal or reaches beyond the condition placed in controversy, an attorney may object or negotiate limits. Confirm the posture before deciding anything.
Sometimes. Observer presence is case specific and often addressed by court order or a stipulation between the attorneys. Have the arrangement confirmed in writing well before the exam date rather than raising it at the front desk.
No. A defense medical examination is a discovery tool in an active lawsuit. A pre-suit examination requested by an insurer usually arises from a provision in an insurance policy. Different source of authority, different procedure, different leverage.
Typically the report is produced and exchanged under the discovery rules and any applicable court order. Your attorney requests it and reviews it with you. Ask how the report is being handled in the case, because timing varies.
That happens often, and it does not resolve the dispute. The examiner’s opinion becomes evidence that can be tested through deposition and cross examination, and it gets weighed against the treatment records created during actual care.
Yes, if your providers say continued care is medically appropriate. The exam is unrelated to a treatment plan, and stopping care because a defense doctor said you look fine tends to hurt both your health and your claim.
If you received a defense medical examination notice, or you think one is coming, the useful conversation happens before the date is locked in. Scope, location, observer arrangements, and which records the examiner receives are all easier to address in advance. Jared J. Pehrson handles these matters personally, and a free case review costs you nothing.
Free case review with Jared J. Pehrson: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. Contingency representation means no attorney’s fees unless we recover, and case cost and fee terms are set out in a written agreement.
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
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