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In Florida, if you have been injured due to the fault of another, then you may be entitled to recover damages to compensate for both past and future medical expenses you were burdened with as a consequence of the suffered injuries.

Medical expenses — both past and future — very often make up the largest portion of the damages claim in an injury lawsuit.  For example, suppose that you injure your legs in a biking accident.  If you work an office job, then your wage loss claims are likely minor in comparison to your medical expenses (depending on the seriousness of the injury, of course).  You may have other damage claims, such as emotional distress, but your various medical expenses — which includes diagnostics, treatment, counseling, rehabilitative care, and surgeries, among other medical services — are likely to constitute a significant chunk of your total damages.

The concept of medical expenses may appear simple upon initial review, but there are many nuances, and a medical expenses claim can become quite complicated when the defendant aggressively disputes it.

To better understand how medical expenses claims work in Florida, let’s take a look at both past and future medical expenses.

Past and Future Medical Expenses

A claim for past medical expenses accounts for the costs that you have already accrued (see Warner v. Ware, 182 So. 605 (Fla. 1938)).  In other words, if you have received any medical services for the injuries you suffered as a result of the defendant’s actions or omissions, then the cost of such services may be rolled in to your medical expenses claim.  Because past medical expenses have already accrued, they are quite easy to prove — you’ll just need the relevant billing evidence to prove your costs.

Consider this simple example.

Imagine that you are injured in a trip and fall accident in a store parking lot.  The store owner-defendant failed to properly maintain and repair a broken parking bumper that he knew had been in disrepair for years.  As a result, you tripped and injured your back and neck.  By the time you bring the lawsuit and make a damages claim, you have already received diagnostic services, pharmaceutical treatments, and injections, among various other treatments.  Your past medical expenses claim may therefore include the cost of these services.

A claim for future medical expenses accounts for costs not yet accrued — the costs will accrue once you receive the services (see DeAlmeida v. Graham, 524 So. 2d 666 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987)). Future medical expenses tend to be more uncertain than past medical expenses, as it requires an element of guesswork.  Though one can estimate the cost of, say, a surgery that is scheduled some months down the line, the exact costs are usually not known beforehand.

We’ll return to the previous example.

Imagine that, when you bring your lawsuit, you have accrued past medical expenses, but you also have future treatment that is scheduled.  You have cortisol injections to receive, further diagnostics to be performed at a cutting-edge hospital, and a surgery scheduled for your neck to help alleviate pressure caused by your injury.  The cost of these future treatments can and should be estimated to the closest degree of accuracy possible.  Despite the fact that you have not yet accrued the costs, you can show that the future treatment will actually occur, then you can recover the damages.  To help assert a more acceptable future medical expenses claim, you’ll want to work with experts who can testify as to the expected costs of your future treatments.

Importantly, to recover damages for future medical expenses in Florida, you’ll have to show that the expenses are reasonably certain to be incurred (see the Florida Standard Jury Instruction 501.1).  With the help and guidance of your attorney, you can bring together medical experts who will be assess the circumstances and testify as to the reasonable certainty of the future treatments.

Contact attorney Randall Spivey at the Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A., a Fort Myers injury law firm today.  We will provide a free and confidential consultation to discuss your legal rights and options.