A $10.6 million wrongful death verdict against a tobacco company
A jury awarded $10.6 million in a wrongful death case against a tobacco company, including $1.6 million for medical expenses. I reviewed the medical bills and offered my opinion for the plaintiff's counsel. This is what that part of the case involved.
What was the case about?
A woman started smoking as a child, smoked for most of her life, and died of lung cancer. Her husband and daughter sued the tobacco company for wrongful death, and the jury found against the company.
How much did the jury award, and how much was medical expenses?
The jury awarded $10.6 million in total: $1.6 million for medical expenses, $2.5 million for pain and suffering, $4 million for wrongful death, and $2.5 million in punitive damages. Medical expenses were about 15 percent of the verdict, and they are the one part of the award that rests directly on documents: the bills.
What does a billing expert do in a case like this?
A billing expert in a wrongful death case answers one question: what was the medical care reasonably worth? Lung cancer treatment runs for years and crosses many providers: hospitals, oncologists, imaging centers, pharmacies. Every one of them bills separately and at its own rates.
I start with the complaint, not the bills. I want to understand what happened medically before I look at a single charge, because a charge only makes sense next to the care it describes. Then I go through the bills line by line, compare each charge with what the same service reasonably costs in the same area, and write an opinion that shows the arithmetic. When a bill is reasonable, I say so. The number that reaches the jury has to hold up under cross-examination, from either side.
Were all of her medical bills part of the claim?
No. While her doctors worked up the lung cancer, they found she also had breast cancer. The plaintiff's attorney limited the case to the lung cancer, so the breast cancer bills were left out. That meant I had to go through every bill and separate the costs of the lung cancer from the costs of the breast cancer. The $1.6 million for medical expenses covers only the lung cancer.
What this means for your case
The medical expenses line in a verdict comes from the bills, and it survives only if the opinion behind it does. If you have a case where the medical bills are in dispute, you can see my other case results or send me the bills for a free first look.
Send the case for a free first look.
Free first look. Flat fee quoted in writing. Report within 10 business days of the complete bills.