CO MLO key terms

The degree of skill, knowledge, and care that a reasonably competent practitioner in the same specialty would provide under similar circumstances; it is the benchmark against which alleged negligence is measured.

A doctrine allowing negligence to be inferred from the mere occurrence of an injury when the instrumentality was under the defendant's exclusive control and the event would not ordinarily happen without negligence.

Failure to meet the applicable standard of care owed to a patient; one of the four elements a plaintiff must prove, along with duty, causation, and damages.

The obligation of a party to persuade the factfinder of a disputed fact; in most civil injury litigation the plaintiff must meet the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard rather than the higher criminal standard.

The link showing that an act or omission produced the harm at issue; legally it has two components, factual cause (but-for or substantial factor) and proximate cause (foreseeable scope of liability).

A systematic method of listing plausible conditions that could explain a patient's findings, then testing each against the evidence until the most probable explanation remains.

Allocation of a claimant's impairment, disability, or damages among contributing causes, such as the work injury, prior degeneration, and subsequent events, based on documented evidence rather than speculation.

A worsening of a pre-existing condition caused by a new event; the examiner must distinguish temporary flare-ups from permanent worsening and describe the change in objective terms.

Any disease, degeneration, or injury present before the event under review, whether or not symptomatic; its baseline severity is central to separating unrelated impairment from new harm.

Age- and load-related structural deterioration such as disc space narrowing, osteophytes, or cartilage loss; it is common in asymptomatic adults and must not be assumed to result from trauma.

The obligation to disclose material risks, benefits, and alternatives so a patient can give informed consent; litigation may focus on what risks a reasonable patient would consider significant.

The record of a discussion covering diagnosis, proposed procedure, material risks, alternatives, and the patient's agreement; missing documentation weakens the defense even when the discussion occurred.

The pretrial phase in which parties exchange information through interrogatories, requests for production, and depositions; expert opinions and the records they relied on are typically disclosed here.

A court order compelling a person or institution to produce specified records or documents at a stated time and place, commonly used to obtain medical and employment files.

Individually identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity or business associate; disclosure for litigation generally requires patient authorization, a court order, or another permitted exception.

The gross movement of bones about joint axes, described in terms of flexion, extension, abduction, and rotation, as distinct from the gliding and rolling of joint surfaces.

Motion occurring between articular surfaces, such as rolling, gliding, and spinning; it explains why a joint can be grossly mobile yet still have a mechanical block.

The passive resistance a ligament provides against abnormal joint translation or rotation; disruption produces measurable laxity and is a common basis for instability impairment.

The forces, direction, and timing of an event that explain how tissue was loaded; a plausible mechanism supports or undermines the claim that a specific structure was injured.

Verifiable abnormalities such as swelling, deformity, imaging changes, or measured weakness, as opposed to symptoms that rest on the patient's report alone.

The degree to which a test actually detects what it claims to detect, expressed through sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values in the relevant population.

Quantified joint movement recorded with an instrument such as a goniometer or inclinometer; valid impairment ratings depend on reproducible technique and consistent effort.

Exaggeration or fabrication of symptoms, whether conscious or unconscious; examiners look for inconsistency between observed behavior, effort-dependent tests, and reported limitations.

A set of nonorganic physical findings, such as superficial tenderness or inconsistent straight-leg raising, that suggest distress or illness behavior rather than structural pathology; they do not by themselves prove malingering.

A standardized reference for translating stable medical findings into a numeric whole-person or regional impairment percentage, widely used in workers' compensation and disability systems.

The numeric percentage assigned to a permanent loss of body function using a defined method; it describes medical loss, not the person's ability to perform a particular job.

An impairment percentage expressed relative to the function of the entire body, allowing losses in different regions to be compared and combined under a single scale.

The point at which a condition has stabilized and further treatment is unlikely to produce meaningful change; ratings are usually assigned only after this point is reached.

Assessment of how a permanent impairment interacts with a person's age, education, and work demands to limit activity; it is broader than impairment and depends on nonmedical factors.

Specific limits on lifting, standing, or repetitive motion derived from clinical findings and functional capacity, used by employers and insurers to place a claimant appropriately.

A structured battery of physical tests measuring a claimant's safe maximum work abilities; results are compared with observed effort because validity depends on maximal, consistent performance.

An examination requested by an insurer, employer, or court rather than by the patient, in which a physician offers an objective opinion on diagnosis, causation, and impairment.

The process by which a court decides whether a witness has sufficient knowledge, training, and experience to offer opinion testimony that will assist the factfinder.

Sworn out-of-court testimony recorded by a court reporter, used to preserve testimony and test credibility; the expert is questioned by opposing counsel and may be cross-examined at trial with the transcript.

Preparation of a structured written opinion that states the questions asked, records reviewed, examination findings, reasoning, and conclusions in language a nonphysician can follow.

Systematic analysis of clinical documentation to establish chronology, prior baseline, treatment response, and inconsistencies; gaps and late entries must be identified and explained.

Any financial or personal interest that could bias an opinion, such as a large share of income from one referral source; it must be disclosed and managed to preserve credibility.