Determining Compensation for Injuries in Oklahoma Courts
Today, I’m going to deal with question four of the 12 most frequently asked questions I get from family, friends, and potential clients. Number four, how is the money I can receive for my injuries determined in Oklahoma like medical bills or lost wages? My name is Mike Ashworth, and I’m with TulsaPersonalInjuryLawyer.pro. My phone number’s 918-924-5528, and I’m gonna answer that question now.
The money is determined by the trier of fact. In Oklahoma, judges are considered the trier of law. They tell you what the applicable law is. It’s kind of like determining what is the shape of the mold, Jell-O mold, and then the facts are going to be the Jell-O mix put into that mold, and they have to fit within the mold. They can’t go outside the mold. The way they’re determined is by what you present by way of evidence.
Now, the tradition has been through the years in personal injury cases to get things like medical records, medical bills, things including economic information from your employer about days of work that were missed because something happened, or you may be able to go back to work, but you can’t go back to work at 100%, therefore you’re not making as much money. Then you bring in documentation of that.
However, there has been a trend in recent years increasingly for individuals not to put in medical bills, and sometimes they do put in lost wages, but not to put in medical bills, and the reason why is because the thought process is that medical bills don’t tell the entire story. They don’t tell the real impact of what’s going on. They talk about the cost of a particular procedure on this one day, but they don’t really talk about the whole picture.
You Need to Have All the Information and Get It to Your Lawyer
So from time to time, there are decisions made not to put in the medical bills, not to stick jurors with just, well, here’s the numbers, this is it, this is all they’re entitled to is what the defense attorney will say. The question is, you need to have all that information and get it to your lawyer, and then down the road, a tactical decision will be made. If we go to trial, do we want to put the medical bills in or not? But as I say, there’s an increasing trend, and a successful one, to not put in medical bills.
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I’m Mike Ashworth. Make law easy. Tell us at tulsapersonalinjurylawyer.pro. Call 918-924-5528 for a initial consultation today.
