If you hand over years of records without limits, the insurer may use your old back problem to argue the fall didn't cause anything new and push you toward a cheap settlement before the bills pile up.

A common Warren example: someone slips on an icy apartment walkway near Mound Road in January, lands hard, and their old degenerative disc issue suddenly becomes disabling. A week later, the apartment complex's insurer sounds helpful and asks for a blanket medical release. During tax season, with rent, copays, and collection notices hitting at once, that can feel like the only way to move things along. But the angle is usually simple: they want to dig through your history for any prior complaint, missed workday, or MRI note they can blame instead of the unsafe property condition.

Michigan law does not let a landlord or property insurer escape responsibility just because you had a pre-existing condition. If the fall aggravated, accelerated, or made that condition worse, that worsening can still be part of the claim.

The general rules:

• Give focused records, not an unlimited release covering your whole life.
• Expect them to look for proof the condition existed before the fall.
• Your side needs proof of the change after the incident: new symptoms, new restrictions, stronger medication, missed shifts, new imaging, or a doctor noting a clear worsening.
• Save photos of the ice, broken stair, poor lighting, or other hazard, plus the incident report and names of witnesses.
• Watch deadlines. Most Michigan injury lawsuits are generally filed within 3 years, but evidence disappears fast.
• If a parked car was involved rather than a fall, Michigan's no-fault rules can limit lawsuits unless there is a serious impairment of body function. Pure premises claims usually turn on the dangerous property condition instead.

In Warren, that means the fight is often less about whether your back was ever bad, and more about whether this property hazard made it materially worse.