How Does a Jury Determine Future Medical Bills in an Auto Accident Case?

If your Tampa car accident attorney files a lawsuit on your behalf in Hillsborough, Pinellas or Pasco Counties, one of the issues that the jury will be asked to consider is awarding you future medical bills for the injuries you sustained as a result of your auto accident. How does a jury determine what those future medical bills will be?

The jury will be presented evidence by your Tampa auto accident attorney that the jury can use to calculate the amount of medical bills which you can be expected to occur in the future. Because such future medical bills are naturally more speculative than past medical bills since they haven’t been incurred yet, the courts in Florida require a higher standard for the jury to apply in awarding such money damages. While typically plaintiffs in a car accident lawsuit are only required to show evidence that past medical bills were necessary and reasonable within a reasonable degree of medical probability in order to receive reimbursement from a jury, with regard to future medical bills, plaintiffs must introduce evidence that the medical bills are “reasonably certain” to occur.

And what type of evidence will the jury rely upon. Usually such evidence comes from the plaintiffs’ medical doctors. The medical doctor will be subpoenaed to appear as a trial witness. The plaintiff's lawyer will ask the doctor what are the expectations for future medical bills. The medical doctors’ opinion will be based on such things as whether or not surgery is expected in the future or whether the person injured in a Tampa car accident will need conservative maintenance type care throughout the remainder of their life. Such maintenance type care includes things such as prescription medication and occasional medical treatment for flare ups. If the doctor provides testimony that the car accident plaintiff requires a certain amount of money each year, the jury will be given a mortality table from which they can base how many years the plaintiff is expected to live and therefore how long they will need to provide monies. For example, if a doctor testifies that conservative treatment will require $1500 a year and the jury receives into evidence a mortality table showing that the plaintiff is expected to live another 30 years, the jury can be expected to provide approximately $45,000 for future medical care.

It should be noted that the jury will be asked to determine the present value of this $45,000 in future medical care on the verdict form. That is because the jury will be awarding today monies that the car accident plaintiff will need over a thirty year period. The idea is that the jury can award the plaintiff less than $45,000 because the plaintiff can deposit the $45,000 and because the plaintiff will be earning interest the plaintiff will need less money in a lump sum today and the money having gained in interest will be there in the future when it is needed.

An experienced personal injury attorney may argue to the jury that they should not use present value in determining how much to award for future medical care. The attorney will argue that inflation will cause future medical care to be more expensive than today. As a result, $45,000 will be an inadequate amount to pay for the future medical care and so the jury should consider that inflation will balance out any benefit that the plaintiff may receive by getting today money that isn’t needed until sometime in the future.

Finally, it will be very important for your personal injury attorney to elicit testimony from the medical doctor that in his opinion the need for $45,000 in future medical care is within a reasonable degree of “medical certainty.” Without this all important statement being provided to the jury by the plaintiff’s testifying doctor, the defense attorney can ask for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case which would bar the plaintiff from receiving any monies for future medical care.

You can see that receiving an award from the jury for future medical care has certain requirements. If your personal injury law firm is not aware of these requirements in order to make sure that they are made met during the course of the jury trial, your compensation for injuries resulting from a Tampa car accident can be seriously affected. At the law firm of Dale Appell, PA, we have the experience in trying car accident cases whether they took place in Tampa, Clearwater or St. Petersburg to make sure that you maximize your reimbursement and that the jury is provided the evidence necessary to award future medical bills.

Should have more questions, or your need excellent representation, contact us. We're glad to help you.