Text
Appellate report
Who needs to know about this case: All trial lawyers who try cases involving damages for medical expenses covered by health insurance. Get business lawyer free consultation and get advice about business law.
Why it’s important: First case to acknowledge that the collateral-source rule should apply to prevent the defense from reducing the amount of its liability for medical expenses based on plaintiff’s health-insurance coverage.Â
Synopsis: Plaintiff Howell suffered severe injuries in an auto accident caused by an employee of defendant Hamilton Meats, who was acting in the course of scope of his employment. She required two spinal-fusion surgeries, as well as additional surgeries to attempt to repair her neck and hip. The jury returned a special verdict that awarded to Howell compensatory damages in the total amount of $689,978.63, which included $189,978.63 for past economic loss, including medical expenses; $150,000 for future economic loss, including medical expenses; $200,000 for past non economic loss (including physical pain, men-tal suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, physical impairment, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress; and $150,000 for future non economic loss.
Hamilton moved post trial, under Hanif, and Nishihama v. City and County of San Francisco seeking an order reducing the jury’s special verdict for Howell’s past medical expenses by $130,286.90 (i.e., from $189,978.63 to $59,691.73), based on the amount that Howell’s medical insurers actually paid for the care she received, in light of their contracts with the health-care providers. The trial court granted the motion over Howell’s objections, grounded principally on the collateral-source rule under Helfend.
The appellate court reversed, finding that the post-trial reduction of Howell’s damages violated the collateral source rule. The court noted that Howell executed written contracts with the providers that made her financially liable for all charges incurred and explained that this liability was a compensable detriment or pecuniary loss under the Civil Code. The extinguishment of this liability by the providers under their con-tracts with Howell’s insurers was a benefit to her, that was wholly collateral to and independent of the tortfeasor; hence, it was subject to the collateral-source rule. The court distinguished Hanif, as a Medi-Cal case where the plaintiff never incurred any personal liability. The court did not distinguish Nishihama; rather, it simply disagreed with its reasoning. The court held that any changes in the collateral-source rule should come from the Legislature.
The court also held that because the collateral-source rule precludes the reduction of medical expenses awarded to a plaintiff based on the amounts paid by the plaintiff’s health insurers for that care, the post-trial reduction of jury awards is not authorized.
0 notes
Text
Working with legal nurse-consultants
It goes without saying that legal nurse-consultants, in all their efforts, cut through both medical and legal jargon. They present their findings in clear, organized tables and compelling narratives that can provide counsel for the case foundation for a winning story-line. They’re unfazed by reams of documents, and, taking advantage of the latest technologies, they can index and organize materials so an attorney instantly can find whatever’s needed, even in the heat of a courtroom argument. The ‌‌corporate‌ ‌lawyer helps you in legal matters of your corporation.
As with all providers of professional services, counsel caveat emptor: Look at the qualifications of the individuals who will do the actual work contracted for; consider the company’s capacity and record in delivering what's needed, espe-cially with the flexibility demanded in difficult, fast-moving and challenging litigation, whether the matters seem large or small. If the point of unbundling this duty is to find someone else to assume is the handling of medical records, including billing audits and life-care plans, the central concern of this business? Or is it just one more sidelight? And what kind of customer service will you get and who will you deal with to get it?
Finally, of course, the price for all this expert effort must come into play. It ought to be considerably less than what might be racked up via in-house time and labor expenditures, or, certainly, what might be billed by a consulting physician or combination of medical experts. A quality company that specializes in medical records’ review will be open to pricing discussions for its services from beginning to end. Legal nurse consultants, billing and auditing experts and life-care planners expect to work closely with clients to provide candor, transparency and controls on costs of their services. 7’his adds to the growing enthusiasm for the medical records’ companies they’re associated with and their place in legal services, unlike, say, the reception for Bartleby, the Melville character, who, when confronted by new work, always “would prefer not to.” Of course, this isn’t the 19th century' scriveners are gone -• and sophisticated members of the legal community are tackling 21st century ways, with help from legal nurse-consultants and other medical professionals, to do vital work that adds up for the bottom line and contributes to maximizing damages for deserving clients.
0 notes
Text
Civil courtrooms in touch the brunt of budget cuts
Matters set over for future dates accumulate over time. The backlog created by a closure in one month isn't fully cleared before subsequent closure occurs. Worse, inefficiencies created by closure-related continuances aren't linear. they're exponential. Managing a clogged system adds significant work related to unproductive “case-shuffling.” The potential for courtroom and courthouse closures greatly com-pounds the matter . the times of five- years-to-trial in civil cases that existed once I began practicing law in 1975 aren't as distant as we'd think. Before startup your business in California hire or contact business attorney orange county.
RM: Can the court avoid this by using reserves?
CM: Reserves aren't sufficient to avoid the gathering storm, but we've been ready to postpone its landfall with money stored-up over the last several years. Within the years following California’s 2002-03 recession, our court stored-up reserves that we are now spending down, as prudent as possible, to take care of court operations. This, additionally to the one- day-a-month closures, employee attrition, aggressive internal cost-cutting, and other economies, has thus far enabled us to stay our heads above water. But, time is running out on postponement strategies. The shortfalls ahead are so large we sim-ply cannot cut our answer of the crisis.
RM: When does it appear we'll have to begin permanent courtroom and courthouse closures in Los Angeles?
CM: Perhaps as soon as April of 2010.
RM: does one see any thanks to avoid doing that?
CM: Yes, I do, but the answer requires thinking as big because of the crisis we face. The Legislature passed SB 1407 in 2008 - a $5 billion courthouse construction bond bill. To support the bonds, which haven't yet been sold, the Legislature created a replacement income stream within the sort of added fees and fines. In l. a. alone, that new revenue stream is producing about $53 million per annum . SB 1407, which was a majority vote bill, are often amended to redirect this revenue stream for a brief period of your time to save lots of court operations instead of building new courthouses. Ilie Legislature recently redirected alittle portion of this money as a part of the present financial year budget solution. I'm convinced we must be willing to redirect, for a period of your time , the maximum amount of the SB 1407 revenue stream as is important to save lots of court operations - not just in l. a. , but to save lots of courtroom operations statewide.
RM: What impact would redirecting SB 1407 funds wear saving court operations in Los Angeles?
CM: $53 million per annum in l. a. is that the funding equivalent of nearly 1000 jobs. On the average , efficient court systems need about 10 employees to perform the work required to support each courtroom. Thus, about 100 courtrooms are often saved by redirecting SB 1407 funds to support courtroom operations during the continued budget crisis. Court operations must, I believe, take priority over new brick and mortar projects. When SB 1407 bonds are eventually sold, and therefore the budget crisis has abated, the SB 1407 income stream are often redirected to support the bonds and therefore the building program can shift back to full operation. In challenging times as these, people and their legal problems must tend priority over resource-intensive capital projects which will prudently be delayed or postponed.
0 notes
Text
Latest PSM-II Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of PSM-II Questions
Latest PSM-II Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of PSM-IIÂ Questions
New PSM-II Dumps – Refreshed PSM-II Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Professional Scrum Master II certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Scrum PSM-II exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on Scrum certifications, who…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Launch XK0-004 PDF Dumps with Updated XK0-004 Questions
New Launch XK0-004 PDF Dumps with Updated XK0-004Â Questions
New XK0-004 Dumps – Refreshed XK0-004 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that CompTIA Linux+ certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the CompTIA XK0-004 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on CompTIA certifications, who need to…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Latest VMCE2020 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of VMCE2020 Questions
Latest VMCE2020 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of VMCE2020Â Questions
New VMCE2020 Dumps – Refreshed VMCE2020 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Veeam Certified Engineer 2020 certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veeam VMCE2020 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on Veeam…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Veritas VCS-325 Exam Dumps 2021
New Veritas VCS-325 Exam Dumps 2021
New VCS-325 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-325 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas Backup Exec 20.1 certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-325 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on Veritas…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Veritas VCS-322 Exam Dumps 2021
New Veritas VCS-322 Exam Dumps 2021
New VCS-322 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-322 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas Enterprise Vault 12.x certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-322 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Veritas VCS-278 Exam Dumps 2021
New Veritas VCS-278 Exam Dumps 2021
New VCS-278 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-278 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas NetBackup 8.1.2 certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-278 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on Veritas…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Veritas Introduces VCS-277 Exam Questions 2021
Veritas Introduces VCS-277 Exam Questions 2021
New VCS-277 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-277 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas NetBackup 8.0 and NetBackup Appliances 3.0 certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-277 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Launch VCS-276 PDF Dumps with Updated VCS-276 Questions
New Launch VCS-276 PDF Dumps with Updated VCS-276Â Questions
New VCS-276 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-276 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas NetBackup 8.0 certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-276 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on Veritas…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Latest VCS-261 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of VCS-261 Questions
Latest VCS-261 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of VCS-261Â Questions
New VCS-261 Dumps – Refreshed VCS-261 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that Administration of Veritas InfoScale Storage 7.3 for UNIX/Linux certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the Veritas VCS-261 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
HashiCorp Introduces VA-002-P Exam Questions 2021
HashiCorp Introduces VA-002-P Exam Questions 2021
New VA-002-P Dumps – Refreshed VA-002-P Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the HashiCorp VA-002-P exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Launch USMLE PDF Dumps with Updated USMLE Questions
New Launch USMLE PDF Dumps with Updated USMLEÂ Questions
New USMLE Dumps – Refreshed USMLE Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that United States Medical Licensing Examination certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the USMLE USMLE exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on USMLE…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New OMG UM0-411 Exam Dumps 2021
New OMG UM0-411 Exam Dumps 2021
New UM0-411 Dumps – Refreshed UM0-411 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that OCRES – Advanced certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the OMG UM0-411 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on OMG certifications, who need to…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
New Launch UM0-401 PDF Dumps with Updated UM0-401 Questions
New Launch UM0-401 PDF Dumps with Updated UM0-401Â Questions
New UM0-401 Dumps – Refreshed UM0-401 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that OCRES-Intermediate certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the OMG UM0-401 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information on OMG certifications, who need to…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Latest UiPath-RPAv1 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of UiPath-RPAv1 Questions
Latest UiPath-RPAv1 Exam Dumps For Best Preparation of UiPath-RPAv1Â Questions
New UiPath-RPAv1 Dumps – Refreshed UiPath-RPAv1 Exam Questions Get through Your Test just with CertsGuru We CertsGuru can comprehend that UiPath RPA Associate v1.0 Exam (UiRPA) certification isn’t something simple for competitors, so for your effortlessness, we have arranged the UiPath UiPath-RPAv1 exam dumps pdf questions in helpful ways for our IT understudies, who need to obtain information…
View On WordPress
0 notes