Medical bills must be calculated as a part of the settlement advice to client.

If  there is a deposition on written questions to obtain medical records -- plaintiff also should use the questions which will get the medical bills and foundation for trial evidence.  Use the Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian legal form.

When the defense notices the written deposition of a medical records custodian -- plaintiff's counsel has an opportunity to obtain the medical bills plus the authenticating and foundational testimony to put those expenses into evidence at trial. Plaintiffs should always try this inexpensive cross-questions tactic.


Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian gives you:

  • Information: You get 15 vital questions you should ask - every time - if you want to put medical records into evidence via deposition testimony.  It not only is useful for written depositions, the questions in this form also are your checklist on the oral deposition of any medical witness "live", such as the treating doctor, when he/she has medical records you want to put into evidence!
     
  • Time.  A good legal form saves you time. Don't reinvent the wheel, and don't waste time when you have more important things to do.
     
  • A "Best Practice". You can delegate the "draft the written questions to the medical records custodian" part of your bodily injury practice.  Forms allow you to efficiently delegate to your secretary or legal assistant the job of preparing the questions you need to serve for a deposition on written interrogatories of the medical records custodian.

Two ways for plaintiff to use Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian:

  1. Defense noticing deposition. When the defense notices the deposition on written questions of a medical records custodian - you as the plaintiff has an inexpensive option to serve cross-questions.  It doesn't cost more than the expense of typing the cross-questions. And, if you are using a form like  Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian, then the cost is really minimal. The civil rules option to respond with additional written questions is the way to get not only the bills, but also - usually in actual practice settings - sufficient authenticating and opinion evidence of the amount and reasonableness of the medical expense to put the bills into evidence for the plaintiff.  (Defense counsel usually do not notice what is happening with the cross-questions, and if they do, they normally do not know exactly how to respond.) Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian is most often used  by the plaintiff when a defendant notices a deposition on written questions to ask for medical records. Hence, it is written the format for written cross-questions. Cross-questions are submitted under the procedure outlined in Federal R. Civ. P., Rule 31, or similar state rules. 
     
  2. Plaintiff noticing deposition. You as a plaintiff's bodily injury attorney sometimes may notice  the deposition of a medical records custodian on written questions, to obtain the medical records of the plaintiff, with a business records foundation. The additional questions in Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian regarding the medical bills can be added to the plaintiff's set of direct questions regarding the medical records.  If you are using these questions as a part of plaintiff's own deposition on written interrogatories of a medical record librarian or custodian, simply add these medical bill questions from this form to the end of your written questions regarding the medical records.

Although the testimony on medical expenses may not always be sufficient to provide a foundation for the opinions on reasonableness of the medical expenses, it is always worth-while (the cost to benefit ratio is high)  for a plaintiff to ask Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian. Why?

  • It costs plaintiff no more than his/her legal assistant preparing the questions using the following form. (And in the case of the defendant noticing the deposition, the defendant is paying for the deposition. So why not try to get something for free.)

  • The medical custodian usually gives appropriate affirmative answers to the opinion questions as a matter of rote C they are so used to saying "yes" to every question the court reporter reads to them.  But the defense attorney usually is not alert enough to serve either written objections (or know how to draft appropriate re-direct written questions to establish that the medical custodian really knows nothing first hand regarding why the expenses were needed, or what the reasonable charge is in the locality.) In most jurisdictions, if the defense attorney does not object to form or foundation before the written deposition, the objections to qualifications and foundation for the opinions are waived.
     
  • Plaintiff's Questions to Medical Bills Custodian only costs $12.90.  That's a small investment that is repaid every time you use this form and save ten minutes.

Note: our #MED4707 is the form for medical reports and records, as opposed to the legal form described on this page (#MED4708, which targets the medical bills).  So, see Written Deposition Questions to Medical Records Custodian if it you want medical records, plus the foundation to put those records into evidence --- even if the medical records are stored electronically.

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