Everyone says old back problems kill your case, but actually a prior back injury does not make your Hawaii claim worthless. A Pearl City crash claim with an old back issue can still be worth five figures or more if the wreck clearly aggravated it. There is no honest flat number. What matters is the value of the worsening the crash caused, not the fact that you had an old MRI.

The follow-up question you should be asking is: can you prove the difference between your old condition and your post-crash condition - and if your lawyer is not doing that, can you switch lawyers mid-case?

In Hawaii, auto claims start in the no-fault system. Your own PIP coverage usually pays the first $10,000 in medical and rehab expenses, no matter who caused the crash. To step outside no-fault and pursue a bodily injury claim against the other driver, you usually need to meet Hawaii's threshold, such as more than $5,000 in medical-rehabilitative expenses or a qualifying serious injury.

If the insurer is waving around an old MRI, the practical move is to lock down proof that the crash made things worse:

• pre-crash records showing your baseline
• post-crash imaging and treatment showing a change
• a doctor willing to say the collision aggravated the condition
• a timeline showing new symptoms after the wreck, especially after hydroplaning, flood, or debris crashes on H-1

That matters even more if the wreck involved a school-zone hit or a firetruck response collision near Pearl City, where insurers often argue you were already hurt.

If your lawyer keeps letting the adjuster frame this as "all pre-existing," you can usually change lawyers before settlement or trial. The fee is typically worked out between the lawyers from the same contingency fee, not paid twice by you. The real dollar value depends on whether someone is building the aggravation case correctly.