Should Jurors Include All of the Medical Bills in Their Award

Ben Glass

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 320

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A question that sometimes comes up in jury deliberation is whether or not the jury should include as a part of its award the total amount of the injured person's medical bills. Some believe that because these bills may have been covered by insurance that to include them in the award would be a "double recovery."

Generally, the law is that the jury should include the entire amount of the medical bills (for those medical expenses the jury believes were caused by the defendant's wrongdoing) in their Award because in most cases today the injured party must pay back all or part of his medical expenses to his health insurance company. This is known as the Law of Subrogation or Reimbursement.

Frankly, not many people realize that when you are injured by someone else's carelessness in most cases today your health insurance company or employee health benefit plan is merely advancing you the cost of the medical bills and expecting and indeed requiring that you repay these bills if you get a recovery from a jury or settle your case.

Therefore, juries should not genuinely consider whether there is an insurance policy paying the medical bills because in most cases any Award must be repaid to the insurance company.