Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Under 10-4-701 the self-insurer is liable for up to $50K for medical expenses and $50K for rehabilitation expenses per injured person.
There was an amendment in 1996, which provides that if you exceed the $50K for the meds, you can use any remaining portion of the rehab. If you exceed the $50K for the rehab, however, you cannot use unspent medical. Thus, you need to be wary of defendants trying to portray your expenses at rehab and capping out at $50K. Also defense attorneys may cite law that pre-dates the 1996 amendment to try and cap out our med recovery at $50K.

What is rehab and what is medical? That is gray area with cases all across the board. If you want to lump your expenses into medical you can quote Dean v. Allstate, 878 F.Supp 1397 (1993) which provides that post-surgery or post-injury recuperation treatment such as Physical Therapy would be medical and OT, speech therapy and other training would be rehab.

1 comment:

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