The Collateral Source Rule: A Rule of Evidence and a Rule of Damages   Tags: evidence  

The collateral source rule is both a rule of evidence and a rule of damages. This common law doctrine states that a defendant cannot reduce the amount of damages owed to the plaintiff in a tort case based on compensation the plaintiff received from a source outside the tort system.  Essentially, the defendant is barred from presenting any evidence as to payments of medical, hospital, disability income, or other expenses of tortious injury paid for by plaintiff, governmental entity, or third-party.

I am Crystal Ferrier, a third year law student at Georgia State University College of Law. At age 25, I plan to graduate, take the Georgia bar and then practice civil litigation, primarily in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, and products liability. I graduated from Auburn University in the Spring of 2001 with a bachelor's degree in Business Management, but I am a native of St. Simons Island, Georgia.

I wrote this Web Resource Guide as an assignment for Professor Nancy Johnson’s Advanced Legal Research Course. I chose this topic because of my interest in litigating and because of the current dilemma the collateral source rule is causing in legislatures across the nation. The research for this Guide was completed on April 12, 2004.

If you have any questions concerning this web research guide, please feel free to e-mail me.

This web resource guide is designed to help legal practitioners, law students, and law professors in determining admissibility of collateral source evidence at trial.  The guide is not limited to any particular jurisdiction, but the emphasis will be on Georgia law. This research guide may also serve as a useful guide for practitioners in jurisdictions that have not adopted a statute addressing the admissibility of collateral source evidence.

There are 5 main parts to this guide. Part I provides the reader with an overview of what the “collateral source” rule entails and why there is a lot of controversy surrounding the rule. Parts II & III provide the reader with a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the resources related to the collateral source rule. Some of these resources will be linked directly to the website where it can be found, while other resources will link the reader directly to the source. Part III identifies secondary sources such as law reviews, legal encyclopedias, and treatises that may be helpful in familiarizing yourself with this issue before looking at any of the other sources in this guide. Part IV identifies several online research tools that may be used to find the sources mentioned in this Guide. The author will identify which online tools are free and which ones are not. Finally, parts V and VI provide the reader with associated interest groups and a brief conclusion and the author's opinion with regards to the admissibility of collateral source evidence.

Bibliographies on this Web site were prepared for educational purposes by law students as part of Nancy P. Johnson's Advanced Legal Research course. The Law Library does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided. Thorough legal research requires a researcher to update materials from date of publication; please note the semester and year the bibliography was prepared.