The escalating dollar figures awarded in personal injury lawsuits might be good for trial lawyers, but they are terrible for most of the people of Florida.
Taking advantage of legal loopholes makes the cost of everything—from insurance rates to everyday goods and services—go up across the board.
The recent hurricanes should serve as a reminder that our state lawmakers, who are meeting this week in Tallahassee for a special session, need to tackle lawsuit abuse. They can start by reforming the lack of transparency in damages that our courts review when considering a lawsuit.
The greatest element of economic damages awarded in a personal injury lawsuit is often the cost of medical treatment. In Florida, only the billed amount of medical treatment is admissible as evidence in trials, which prevents a judge and jury from knowing the true accuracy in damages.
Accuracy in damages is simply knowing what the actual paid medical bill is versus what was charged. Most people are not surprised to hear that the amount a medical provider bills for services is usually much more than the amount the provider is actually willing to accept in payment. However, in Florida, the jury only sees the amount billed when determining damages in a case.
Using billed charges hides from the jury exactly how much the claimant has actually been damaged. Unfortunately, the inflated billed amount creates a false impression that misleads juries as they determine total damages. In addition, because the jury awards damages for future medical care, after seeing inflated billed amounts, the future care award is oftentimes inflated as well.
Another questionable tactic is what is called a Letter of Protection. This is an agreement between the claimant’s lawyer and the medical provider, where the provider agrees not to collect until the lawsuit is over, so the “paid” amount the provider would have accepted is not available to the judge for consideration. Since judges are not allowed to reduce an award for medical bills not yet paid, a Letter of Protection hides these bills from the judge’s reach, inflating the total damages.
Essentially, trial lawyers are utilizing legal loopholes where they can coordinate with medical providers to inflate a plaintiff’s medical bills and conceal the true cost of monetary damages from a judge and jury. When this happens, businesses defending themselves in many cases pay out more than what the plaintiff should have a right to receive. This inflation in damages allows lawyers to rake in more money for themselves than what is appropriate. That gets passed on to rate-payers across the board, and everyone pays more as a result.
Lawsuit abuse is a problem that hits all Floridians every day. Currently, trial lawyers have an incentive to take advantage of our state’s legal system for their own benefit, and when they do, it hurts everyone.
Our state lawmakers need to address this issue head-on, not only for the sake of fairness for insurers and businesses but for the economic welfare of all Florida taxpayers.
David Biddle is the chairman of the Florida Conservative Action Fund.
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