ISSUE: Should Florida’s tort laws require payment to a plaintiff for actual medical costs, or should the practice of basing medical care claims on inflated bills be continued.

DISCUSSION: In personal injury suits, plaintiffs can claim and are awarded damages based on inflated costs for procedures which do not reflect the actual amount paid by the plaintiff or on the plaintiff’s behalf. The jury is not allowed to know the true amount. This results in inflated awards for medical claims and increased attorney fees, as personal injury attorney fees are set as a percentage of the dollar amount of the judgment. The practice of allowing these inflated or untrue damages increases the cost of personal injury suits without a commensurate benefit to the injured party or parties.

POSITION: The Florida Retail Federation believes that injured parties should recover based on their real expenses, not phantom numbers. The Federation supports corrective legislation to help restore truthful damage verdicts in personal injury lawsuits.