FUTURE MEDICAL BILLS AND CARE FROM ACCIDENT – PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS
Our top Minnesota personal injury attorneys work to make sure our clients get complete compensation for their injuries after an accident.This includes medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
One of the issues that comes up for an accident injury lawyer is to make sure there is enough money set aside for future medical treatment and care.Future medical bills are always something to be concerned about after being injured in an accident. They are an important part of each case our best personal injury lawyers handle in MN. This is particularly important to our clients because they want to know they won’t get stuck for their future medical bills for something that was not their fault.Even worse, is not being able to afford and get the future care they need because of the accident injury.
HOW TO PROVE FUTURE MEDICAL CARE ACCIDENT NEEDS
There are two requirements to get future medical expenses in an insurance settlement or trial: The first requirement is for the accident injury lawyer to prove that future medical treatment will be needed. The second requirement is to establish the amount or cost of the future medical care because of the injury. To prove these requirements, our accident lawyers will have an expert ready to testify, usually a doctor.The injured person and their MN personal injury attorneys must prove the likely cost and need for the future treatment.
Expert medical evidence is usually necessary to establish the reasonable certainty of future medical expenses. However, the need for future damages or permanent injuries may sometimes be inferred from other evidence.When you meet with a best Minnesota personal injury attorney at our office after you were injured in an accident, this is something we will go through with you in detail.
HOW MUCH WILL FUTURE TREATMENT COST?
For example, future medical expenses for injections have been computed by multiplying the known cost of a prescribed drug by the number of needed injections over the injured person’s projected life expectancy. Although not advisable, this could be done without the need for a doctor’s testimony. Even where there is no testimony precisely calculating the injured person’s future medical expenses, it may be possible (although somewhat risky) for the jury to consider the person’s life expectancy and the costs of his treatment to date. They could then multiply this out to arrive at an award of future medical expenses.
Our accident injury attorneys understand that the law requires the need for future medical care to be established by competent evidence. In other words, remote or speculative evidence is insufficient. The standard is not satisfied when an expert testifies future treatment might be necessary.At the same time, the need for future treatment need not be certain: testimony that future treatment is very likely and reasonably certain is sufficient.
DOCTOR SUPPORT FOR FUTURE TREATMENT
Sometimes a doctor testifies that if the person injured in the accident still has certain problems in the future, she will be a candidate for surgery. If the injured person testifies she is still having those problems, the jury can properly award damages for future surgery.
There must also be evidence for the actual cost of future surgery. In other words, the doctor’s testimony cannot be speculative, e.g. ‘I have seen a few bills in the past.’
It should also be noted that there is no legal precedent requiring that only minimal or low-cost future care be awarded after an accident injury, as opposed to optimal care. The insurance company may argue that less expensive care should be awarded. Our personal injury lawyers always respond that our client should not have the risk of yet further injury or suffering from poor treatment.The treatment has to be reasonable, but not a bargain rate just to save the insurance company money.
ACCIDENT INJURY LAWYERS MN
If you have questions about getting your future medical bills or treatment paid after an accident, call us to speak with a top MN personal injury lawyer.We will provide you with a free consultation and answer your questions.
You can meet with one of our personal injury lawyers at our offices in Edina MN, Minneapolis, Woodbury, or St. Louis Park.A personal injury lawyer from our office will also meet people at their homes in Chanhassen, Maple Grove, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, or Anoka MN. Also, Lino Lakes, Forest Lake, St. Paul, Roseville, Lakeville, Burnsville, and other cities throughout Minnesota.