Personal Injury Law - A way to deal with the Howell v. Hamilton Meats case

As noted in an earlier blogpost, the California Supreme Court ruled in the case of Howell v. Hamilton Meats that past medical expenses that are recoverable in a lawsuit are limited to the amount the hospital/medical care provider receives from the patient's health insurer, even if the insurer pays an amount much less than the original billed amount.

One way to deal with the Howell ruling is suggested by the well-regarded firm of Biren Katzman, which is to use medical factoring (companies that will purchase a debt, in this situation a medical bill, from the hospital/medical care provider at a discount and collect the bill from the proceeds of the case, which the factoring company hopes will be more than what they paid for the bill): this way the Plaintiff can seek to admit the full amount of the medical bill into evidence.  This is more likely to be viable in cases with more serious injuries, but it is good to know this kind of strategy exists to counter the effects of Howell.