Impact of the biopsychosocial model of disability on the medicolegal assessment of personal injury.

Background: The objective of this paper was to determine whether the medicolegal assessment of injured and disabled persons is based on the biopsychosocial model of disability proposed by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health.

Methods: We searched for the word disability and other keywords, occurring alone or in combination as well as the meaning given to the word "disability" in two Belgian legal databases (JURA and STRADALEX) for the period from 1960 to 2020.

Results: The use of the term disability has increased over time, more so from 2001 to 2010, in areas of public health law, labor relations, and personal injury law. Cross-referencing keywords revealed that incapacity (personal, domestic, or professional) reflecting the victim's disability from a legal perspective appears to be dominated by the impairment criterion.

Conclusions: Although the biopsychosocial model of disability appears to be widely accepted by courts, medical experts have made few changes to their methodology of assessing personal injuries. We identify four potential factors that could explain the status quo.