Recent Florida Case Law On Letters Of Protection

Letters of Protection complicate accurate valuation and defense of cases involving bodily injury. When a person receives healthcare under a private health insurance plan or governmental insurance, the rates charged for the care are highly regulated and controlled. When people treat and pay out of pocket, those individuals will logically tend to be more selective and reluctant to incur unrealistically high bills. None of these controls are present when a plaintiff is treating under a Letter of Protection. Instead, the plaintiff is likely incentivized to incur larger bills to drive up the overall value of the economic damages in the case. Doctors providing care under Letters of Protection often charge many times more than the typical cost of the services and later accept a fraction of their billed amounts as part of an ongoing relationship with plaintiffs' attorneys. Thus, it is critical that the defense has the ability to explore that relationship and challenge the bias