Q: When awarded money for an accident, is the award separate from the medical bills the insurance is supposed to cover?
I had a case in which we were found to NOT be at fault. Our and his insurance paid for medical expenses and then we were awarded at a certain amount of money--Say $11,000. Our legal rep gave us only a portion of it because he says he paid the hospital with the awarded. Say he paid $8000 to the hospital so we only got $3,000 in damages. My question is, is the award different, separate from the hospital bills? Should we have gotten the entire award as the insurance send payments to the hospitals/doctors?
A: You have a contractual obligation to repay your health insurer for any sums you recover from a third party due to injury. As to whether the amount is appropriate, I have no idea, but some repayment was required.
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