Discovery of Medical Records

In both personal injury and family law, medical records are generally discoverable as long as they are related to the litigation.  In personal injury, that normally means just related to the accident in question.  In custody or other family law cases, they are generally discoverable if their are issues concerning a parties' mental status which could have a bearing on case (i.e. parent is a drug addict).  If you are involved in one of these cases, it is a good idea to get a properly drawn protective order issued under Rule 26 which prohibits the records from just floating around to anyone or the production of just anything.  This can be particularly important in preventing identity theft and if the records have no bearing on the case, prevents the disclosure of the same.