Saturday, July 23, 2005

COLLATERAL SOURCE RULING

The Illinois Supreme Court issued an important ruling on the collateral source doctrine on Thursday, July 21, 2005. In Arthur v. Catour(Docket 97920, 97946, consolidated), the plaintiff, Joyce Arthur was injured while attempting on auction on property owned by one of the defendants. Plaintiff suffered a broken leg, and indicated in discovery that her specials were $19,314.07. Plaintiff had private health insurance[Blue Cross]through her husband. Blue Cross, through various contractual discounts with the relevant health care providers, only paid $13,577.97 on plaintiff's behalf. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment seeking to limit plaintiff's claim for medical expenses to the amount paid, as opposed to the amount billed. The trial court granted the motion. The Appellate Court reversed, holding that the plaintiff damages included the entire amount billed, provided those charges were "...reasonable expenses of medical care".

The Supreme Court opinion[which involves a lengthy and fascinating treatment of the collateral source rule]finally gets down to brass tacks in the last paragraph. The Court ruled that "...plaintiff cannot make a prima facie case of reasonableness based on the bill alone, because she cannot truthfully testify that the total amount has been paid. Instead, she must establish the reasonable cost by other means, just as she would if the services had not yet been rendered..."

My reading of the opinion - makes life more complicated for us personal injury trial lawyers. The opinion seems to suggest that if insurance discounted some of the bill, you better have a doctor testifying that the entirety of the bill was fair and reasonable. It appears from this opinion that simply testifying that a bill is paid will not longer guarantee admission of the actual bill.

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