This is a continuation of Sally Morin’s video blog series about damages in personal injury cases.
To recap, there are three types of special damages you can recover: property damages, medical damages and loss of earnings damages.
Today, I’m going to elaborate on MEDICAL DAMAGES. Medical Damages are the actual amounts that were paid for your reasonable and necessary medical care, whether it was paid by you or your health insurance company. You may have seen my video about the California Supreme Court case Howell vs. Hamilton wherein the court held that a personal injury victim is only entitled to the actual amount paid for medical expenses, rather than the amount billed.
Therefore, if the hospital billed you $20,000 for a surgery, but your insurance company received a contracted adjustment to lower the bill to only $10,000, you are only entitled to recover $10,000 from the third party insurance company. Note that you are also entitled to recover for amounts that are ACTUALLY OWED for medical care related to the accident.
So, let’s say that your insurance does not cover chiropractic care, but you have an outstanding balance of $2,000 with your chiropractor for services related to the accident. As long as you are obligated to pay that $2,000, you can recover that $2,000 from the third party insurance carrier in your personal injury case.
If you have any questions about a particular personal injury case, please submit your case for review by the experienced personal injury team at Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers. We are top-ranked personal injury attorneys with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Jose.
This video and accompanying text is not intended to be a source of legal advice for any purpose. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information in this video and text does not constitute a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of your case.
