Three years is the main deadline for most Wisconsin injury lawsuits, and 51% is the fault line: if your brother is found 51% or more at fault, he recovers nothing.

An old MRI does not automatically kill a claim in Wisconsin. The rule is that the at-fault driver takes the injured person as they find them. If a grain truck, farm vehicle, or other driver on roads near Kenosha made an existing back, neck, or shoulder problem worse, Wisconsin law allows recovery for that aggravation of a pre-existing condition.

This is where insurers get aggressive. They pull old scans and records, then argue, "This was already there." That can reduce or delay payment if nobody clearly separates the old condition from the new worsening. Degenerative findings on an MRI are common, especially after years of physical work, and they do not prove the crash caused no harm.

What matters right now:

• Get the crash report from the Kenosha Police Department, Kenosha County Sheriff, or Wisconsin State Patrol, depending on who responded.
• Make sure his doctor specifically writes that the crash aggravated or worsened the prior condition.
• Do not let the insurer have a blanket medical release for every record he has ever had.
• Keep records showing the difference: pain level, missed work, new restrictions, new treatment, new medications, and what changed after the crash.

If he is undocumented, filing an injury claim does not turn it into an immigration case. Liability insurers usually care about fault, injuries, and damages. If an adjuster asks for immigration papers, that is often pressure, not proof the claim is invalid.

During harvest season, crashes involving grain trucks and slow-moving equipment on roads feeding into Highway 50, Highway 31, and rural Kenosha County routes often create exactly this dispute: old wear-and-tear versus new trauma. The key is proving the crash made him worse, not pretending he was perfectly healthy before.