Who has the right to recover medical expenses incurred for personal injuries to children in Tennessee? The parents? The minor? Either but not both? Does it make any difference if there is a holder of a subrogation interest which has a right to assert a claim against either the parents or the minor?
My recent article on the subject appears on PDF Page 38 of a recent edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.
An excerpt:
[I]t would be a horrible injustice for a public or private health insurer to be permitted to take dollars for medical expenses from the recovery of a child when the child was legally prohibited from seeking a recovery for those expenses. And if federal or other law requires reimbursement from funds recovered by the child, then the child should be permitted to recover the medical expenses from the tortfeasor because the child “will be obligated to pay” the expenses if the claim has merit and a recovery is obtained.