More About Letters Of Protection: Accessing Care Without Upfront Costs
What Is A Letter Of Protection?
A Letter of Protection is a legal agreement between your attorney and a healthcare provider. It’s essentially a written promise from the firm that if you receive a financial settlement or judgment, your medical provider will be paid from those proceeds. More simply put, a letter of protection is how we help you get medical care now, even if you can’t afford to pay anything out of pocket.
We send this letter to the provider to confirm that we represent you, that your injuries were caused by an accident, that an active insurance claim is in place, and that payment will be guaranteed from any settlement or judgment you receive. It’s a lifeline for clients who need care but don’t have insurance or who can’t afford to wait for the insurance process to play out.
Covering Deposits And Guaranteeing Care
A letter of protection allows us to move quickly. As soon as you’re injured and need care, we can connect you with qualified doctors, specialists, or therapists who will treat you without requiring any money upfront. In some cases, particularly with specialists or surgical providers, a deposit may be required. That’s something we advance and pay on your behalf. The rest is covered under the letter itself.
It’s especially helpful if you don’t have health insurance, if your policy comes with high deductibles, or if a provider refuses to treat you without a guarantee of payment. We’ve spent years building strong relationships with reputable providers who trust us to follow through, which means they prioritize your care from day one.
Risks
Like any contract, there are terms, and it’s vital to understand them. Most letters of protection state that providers will be paid only if your case results in a settlement or judgment. Occasionally, a provider may ask to be paid regardless of whether your case succeeds.
Consequently, we don’t offer letters of protection lightly. We thoroughly screen your case to ensure there’s insurance coverage and strong liability before making that commitment. In the rare instance something goes wrong, say, a claim is denied or the case doesn’t settle, we’ve always found a way to work things out with the provider. And to be clear, this is not something we would ever allow to fall solely on your shoulders.
Lose My Case, But Pay Anyway?
This depends entirely on how the letter of protection is written. Some letters of protection are contingent, meaning the provider only gets paid if you win or settle. Others are absolute, meaning they expect to be paid no matter what.
That’s why we carefully negotiate every letter of protection we send. If there’s ever a risk that you’d owe money in a worst-case scenario, we address it upfront, and, more importantly, we shield you from it. Our firm takes responsibility for working with the provider to reach a fair solution.
We can’t make promises about the outcome of any case. That said, in 20+ years, we’ve never had a client face personal financial fallout from a letter of protection, and we don’t intend to start now. Without a letter of protection, many clients would delay or avoid treatment entirely, risking both their health and their case. With a letter of protection, you get immediate access to care, peace of mind, and one less thing to worry about while you’re recovering.
We’ve built this system over years of working with trusted medical professionals, and it’s one of the many ways we make sure our clients are supported physically, legally, and financially.
