{"id":607,"date":"2016-04-01T08:15:53","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T13:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.illinoisinjurylawyerblog.net\/?p=607"},"modified":"2018-04-12T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T17:41:15","slug":"court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not disputed, and the issue on appeal is only the amount of damages awarded. In a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/appellate-courts\/ca2\/14-3555\/14-3555-2016-03-04.html\" target=\"_blank\">case<\/a>, a plaintiff argued that his damages award was incorrect because it did not allow him to choose his own medical provider in the future. The man sued the government after his surgery at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/2016\/03\/08\/quadriplegic-veteran-can-seek-more-from-va.htm\" target=\"_blank\">VA hospital<\/a> rendered him quadriplegic. The government was found liable for his injuries, and the man was awarded damages of over $4 million.<\/p>\n<p>At trial, the man testified that after his surgery he must use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, must use a catheter, and suffers from pain daily. The court awarded the plaintiff $500,000 for past pain and suffering, $1.5 million for future pain and suffering, and $2,469,859 in economic damages. The damages included an award for future medical care and benefits.\u00a0However, the trial court offset the economic damages award for the plaintiff\u2019s future medical care by subtracting the medical care and supplies that would be provided by the VA for free, as a veteran.<\/p>\n<p>The appeals court found that the plaintiff\u2019s future medical care award should not have been reduced as a result of free services provided by the VA. The court held that federal law did not require an offset of a veteran\u2019s damages that could be provided at a VA. In addition, the plaintiff was not required to take advantage of free services provided by the VA. Doing so would deprive the veteran of the ability to choose where to receive his medical care. The court said that he should not be forced because of financial reasons to continue to receive medical care from the provider that was actually responsible for causing his injuries.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/#more-607\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not disputed, and the issue on appeal is only the amount of damages awarded. In a recent case, a plaintiff argued that his damages award was incorrect because it did not allow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-malpractice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award &#8212; Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog &#8212; April 1, 2016<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not &#8212; April 1, 2016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award &#8212; Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog &#8212; April 1, 2016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not &#8212; April 1, 2016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Moll Law Group\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award &#8212; Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog &#8212; April 1, 2016","description":"Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not &#8212; April 1, 2016","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award &#8212; Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog &#8212; April 1, 2016","twitter_description":"Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. However, sometimes the liability issue is not &#8212; April 1, 2016","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Moll Law Group","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/"},"author":{"name":"Moll Law Group","@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/53d2eb37d5d0cdb46ac61abacf05ce90"},"headline":"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award","datePublished":"2016-04-01T13:15:53+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-12T17:41:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/"},"wordCount":659,"articleSection":["Medical Malpractice"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/","url":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/court-rules-plaintiff-free-choice-future-medical-providers-increasing-damages-award\/","name":"Court Rules Plaintiff Has Free Choice in Future Medical Providers, Increasing Damages Award &#8212; Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog &#8212; April 1, 2016","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-01T13:15:53+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-12T17:41:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.molllawgroup.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/53d2eb37d5d0cdb46ac61abacf05ce90"},"description":"Sometimes cases are appealed because a party disagrees with the court\u2019s decision on the issue of liability. 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