to travel somewhere to get specialized medical treatment, like going to a burn unit, then I would say yes. However, the law of damages does not allow for transportation just to go home. Another common question that comes up in litigation is whether travel expenses by the client to attend depositions, court proceedings or mandatory medical examinations by the defense doctor is reimbursable? No. But if the victim is incurring expenses to go back and forth to therapy, doctors visits or a drug store to pick up prescriptions, Yes. The courts have certain rules regarding "costs" of litigation. Florida is like most states and does not allow attorneys to charge (the adversary) for their travel costs and travel time. However, clients have to pay the costs. Some attorneys are more prudent than others when it comes to travel expenses. Some go First Class, stay in the nicest places and spend extra time on the road. I suggest you get a clear understanding with your lawyer about his out of pocket expenses so you will know what discretionary charges he is incurring. Some lawyers subcontract medical records review and legal research to others. It is called "outsourcing." In fact, some research is even sent to India for medical reviews. In medical malpractice and products liability cases the lawyer will likely incur $100,000 in expenses. He will have to eat the expenses if he loses the case, so he will want to make sure the case is big enough to justify those expenses. That explains why attorneys are careful about taking some cases and turn down others.

pits. If you have ever been hurt before, you better know about it or else...you will look like a Liar...and no one likes liars. There is a Chinese proverb: the faintest ink is stronger than the strongest memory. “I don’t remember” does not stand a chance against a medical record showing a previous injury from your past. Records are sometimes kept for a long, long time. In litigation the Defense of a bodily injury case will always get and scour all your medical records for anything that looks, smells, or sounds like a previous injury to the same body part. They will then defend by saying the earlier accident is the true cause, not the most recent accident, and the icing on the cake for the defense is when you “forget” about the old accident. Medical records have a funny way of turning up other doctors, other hospitals, other illnesses, injuries and conditions which we have forgotten all about. Your right of privacy is gone and you stand exposed, naked to your past without a shred of decency left. You will have to give your lawyer a detailed breakdown of every kind of doctor you have seen for the last 10 years, and he will ask you what they saw you for. He should scour those records for you and be looking for similar injuries. If you or you lawyer fail at getting and scouring your records it will plant a poisonous seed which will blossom at exactly the worst possible time: during trial. I was recently in trial for a nice lady who claimed severe foot and ankle injuries as a result of a slip and fall at a nice restaurant in 2008. She had almost $250,000 in doctors bills. I had invested a lot of time and money in her case. I had taken over from 3 earlier attorneys. I believed her. She had RSD/CRPS in her ankle which is the worst kind of pain known to mankind. In her deposition in 2010 (years before I got her case) she was asked if she ever injured her foot or ankle before? Her answer was: “No.” The Defense was laying a trap. Fast forward to 2013. She is in trial on the witness stand in front of a Jury. She is claiming severe foot and ankle injuries and RSD due to the slip and fall in 2008. On cross examination she is again asked about previous foot and ankle injuries. She still says “None.” The trap was set. She was caught. She was embarrassed in front of the jury. It turns out that 20 years ago she was seen in an ER for an ankle injury. She got ankle x-rays done. She said she forgot all about it. Was she lying to cover it up or did she really have a bad memory? During her deposition she had forgotten all about it, and her lawyer did not know about the 1993 ankle injury and failed to warn her about remote accidents. A better answer would have been “I don’t remember.” The Defense attorney whipped out her 1993 ER record showing she was in the ER with ankle and foot injuries in the exact same spot she claimed was hurt in the slip and fall in 2008. He gave it to the Jury. Her case was over. The jury thought she was a liar and they quickly dumped her case into the toilet.

Stuff happens at trial. Sometimes the bad guy wins. Sometimes the claim should not be made at all. Better have a lawyer who knows how to prepare your case for settlement and if necessary, for deposition and trial. Better to be prepared for the storm that is coming than hope it will remain a secret. Ignorance is not bliss.

k to your personal injury protection carrier for accident related bills. You may owe some if you had "Medpay" coverage. If your bills were submitted to Medicare then it has a right to get part of its money back out of the settlement. Some accident victims have major medical insurance or disability insurance benefits with companies like Blue Cross-Blue Shield now called Florida Blue, or with United Health care. If the major medical policy is a part of a benefits package at work then there is a chance that your employer has set up an ERISA plan to help with a 401(k) and insurance benefits. ERISA plans may require dollar for dollar pay back. So, if there is a large chunk of money paid by your ERISA plan for major medical benefits then it may claim every drop of the settlement is owed to the plan administrator. Your lawyer should ask the administrator for plan documents to determine what the ERISA plan rights are against your settlement, and examine IRS filings. I have represented clients with large medical bills. Their ERISA plan want ALL of their settlements, and do not even allow them to pay for my fees and costs, or court costs if we had to go to court. It is obvious that I would like to get paid and also that I want to put settlement money into my clients' pockets rather than sending a large settlement to an ERISA plan administrator. One of the things I have to check is IRS documentation available at www.freeErisa.com. It requires a free registration to get plan information about the ERISA plan. IRS requires annual filings of Form 5500 (and attachments) which show whether the employer is "self funded" or whether the employer has bought a group insurance policy. In the later case, the ERISA plan is subject to the Florida court rules. In the former it is bullet proof and it must be fully paid back. Under Florida rules, if there is no ERISA qualified plan. a company claiming subrogation rights is NOT entitled to a lien against any money paid by UM carriers. It also has to pay a pro-rata cost of collecting the liability settlement. If the client pays me a 1/3rd contingency fee, then the insurance company has to give them a 1/3rd discount on the subrogation claim against the liability settlement. There is another loophole. If the subrogation documents do not waive the Florida "made whole doctrine" then you do not have to pay anything back to the insurance company for subrogation. This whole area of subrogation, reimbursement and ERISA is a field of land mines with lots of booby traps and potential legal problems. Don't try to navigate it on your own. Get a lawyer who knows what to do to protect your rights.