Who is Winning the Collateral Source Rule War? The Battleground in the Sixth Circuit States
University of Toledo Law Review, Vol. 31, pp. 425-447, 2000
23 Pages Posted: 3 May 2012
Date Written: 2000
Abstract
The collateral source rule has been firmly entrenched in the American jurisprudence of the law of damages for over a century. The rule, considered to be both a rule of evidence and a rule of law, bars the introduction of evidence that a plaintiff has received support from a source collateral to the defendant-wrongdoer which reduced an element of loss. The rule also prohibits the wrongdoer from reducing his or her liability by denying an offset for the support that the plaintiff has received from the collateral source. This article examines the common law collateral source rule's history, policy justifications, and benefactors. The article also examines recent challenges to the common law collateral source rule within the Sixth Circuit states, and the rationales behind such challenges.
Keywords: Collateral source rule, collateral source, reducing liability, bar evidence
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