Can Cost of Chiropractic Treatment Be Included In Settlement?

According to the laws that relate to personal injury cases, the responsible party must pay all the reasonable medical expenses of the injured victim. The amount of money needed to cover those expenses gets determined by a look at the victim’s medical records by the injury lawyer in Hamilton. That includes the records kept by the chiropractor.

Questions that should be answered by examining chiropractor’s records

What were the symptoms of the patient that came to you? This question assumes that the patient of interest was the injured victim.

What was the treatment that was given to the same patient? This provides details on the method used for treating the victim’s injuries.

What was the cost of that treatment? This question represents an effort to determine whether or not the treatment might be deemed unreasonable. If the patient had been charged an exorbitant fee, then that could put the treatment in the category with this heading: unreasonable.

There is a second way that the chiropractor’s treatment might be deemed unreasonable. That possibility becomes a reality if the chiropractor has failed to keep an accurate record of the services performed for the patient of interest. When the recorded information appears incomplete or inadequate, the treatment can be declared unreasonable. The defendant does not have to cover the cost of such a procedure.

How extensive is the coverage of treatments provided by chiropractor?

If the case gets to court, the jury decides the full extent of that coverage. Sometimes, though, the judge alters the jury’s ruling, based on evidence presented to the court. In either instance, the extent of the coverage varies from case to case.

If the case gets settled before it has gone to trial, the extent of the coverage depends largely on the desires of the injured victim and on the length of the victim’s recovery. Keep in mind that a settlement offer is usually not accepted until after the victim has recovered.

Of course, if the victim has a lengthy recovery, and if the period of recovery includes time visiting the chiropractor, the victim’s bill may rise to a surprisingly high level. At that point, neither side can know for sure, what the jury’s decision might be, if the case were to be tried in a courtroom.

Both sides might agree that it would be best to reach a settlement at a point that comes before the victim’s total recovery. When that happens, there will be remaining treatments that do not get covered by the agreed-upon compensation (settlement). The victim decides if and when those uncovered treatment will be received. Any refusal of the treatments would have no bearing on the awarded compensation, once the award got included in the final settlement.