Also known as: medical · medical reports · medical evidence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
Reasonable expenses for medical treatment, hospital care, and related services incurred because of bodily harm or illness. These expenses are recoverable as damages in tort actions.
Reasonable expenses for medical treatment, hospital care, and related services incurred because of bodily harm or illness. These expenses may constitute necessaries for which one spouse is liable.
Reasonable expenses for medical treatment, hospital care, and related services incurred because of bodily harm or illness. These expenses are recoverable as damages in tort actions.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Reasonable expenses for medical treatment, hospital care, and related services incurred because of bodily harm or illness. These expenses may constitute necessaries for which one spouse is liable.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
After a car collision, Maya Malik approached the injured driver and offered to cover all hospital costs. At trial the plaintiff sought to introduce that offer as proof of fault. The court excluded the evidence because an offer to pay medical expenses cannot be used to establish liability.
Musa Mensah suffered a broken leg when struck by a delivery van. At trial he introduced invoices showing hospital stays, physical therapy, and follow-up visits. The jury awarded those amounts as reasonable medical expenses caused by the defendant's negligence.
Monica Morgan and her husband signed a cryopreservation agreement that labeled their frozen embryos as their property. When the clinic refused to release the embryos after divorce, the court treated the agreement as controlling and enforced the couple's contractual rights over the medical specimens.
Maria Morales agreed to serve as a gestational surrogate. State law required her to undergo a complete medical evaluation by a licensed physician before the arrangement could proceed. The court refused to approve the contract until the evaluation was completed and filed.
Mason McCarthy told his treating physician that his back pain began immediately after a workplace fall. Because the statement was made for and pertinent to medical diagnosis, the court admitted it under the hearsay exception even though it described the cause of injury.
No. Federal Rule of Evidence 409 excludes evidence that a party furnished, promised, or offered to pay medical expenses when offered to prove liability for the injury.
Supporting sources
A plaintiff may recover reasonable medical and other expenses incurred because of bodily harm. The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 924(c) expressly includes these costs as a category of damages.
Supporting sources
Yes. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 803(4)(A), a statement made for and reasonably pertinent to medical diagnosis or treatment is admissible even if it would otherwise be hearsay.
Supporting sources
Malcolm McKinley underwent emergency surgery while his wife was out of state. The hospital billed the couple jointly. Because medical care qualifies as a necessary, the court held the wife jointly liable for the unpaid balance even though she did not authorize the procedure.
A spouse may be held liable for medical care as necessaries purchased by the other spouse. Liability turns on the need of one spouse for the funds and the ability of the other to pay.
Supporting sources
…on Human Reproduction urged the adoption of a stated policy of opposition to induced abortion, except when there is "documented medical evidence" of a threat to the health or life of the mother, or that the child "may be born with incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency," or that a pregnancy "resulting from legally…