Who Pays for Future Medical Treatment After I Settle My Personal Injury Case?

Who pays for future medical care after you settle your personal injury claim? I hear that question on a fairly regular basis. The answer? Any future treatment should be wrapped into your settlement (or verdict). The trick is making sure that you have a credible doctor who will state, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that you will need the treatment. A "reasonable degree of medical certainty" is legalese for saying that your doctor believes that you are likely to need future treatment.

Once you have a doctor testifying to your future treatment, it is just a matter of attaching a price tag to the future treatment and wrapping it into a personal injury settlement or verdict.

If the funds for future treatment are not awarded by a jury or included in a settlement, then you cannot recover them.

Pete Clancy is a personal injury attorney in Oakland.