Report Title:

Personal Injury Cases; Liens for Services

Description:

Clarifies that a lien for services in a personal injury case shall be established pursuant to a settlement or judgment for damages for personal injury. (HB2717 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2717

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to liens.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 507-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§507-4 Liens for services in personal injury cases. Whenever any person recovers judgment for damages for personal injuries to oneself or to another, any hospital which has furnished room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations to the injured person in connection with the care[,] or treatment of such injuries, and any dentist, doctor, physician, or surgeon who has treated the injured person for such injuries, shall have a lien[, subject to any common-law lien, on such judgment or the proceeds thereof for the agreed or reasonable value of the services performed or the agreed or reasonable value of the room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations furnished, if, before satisfaction of judgment is docketed, the dentist, doctor, physician, surgeon, or hospital files in the office of the chief clerk of the circuit court of the circuit in which the judgment was recovered, or, in the case of a judgment recovered in a district court, in the office of the clerk of the district court of the circuit in which judgment was recovered, a notice setting forth the agreed or reasonable value of the services performed or the agreed or reasonable value of the room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations furnished. In the event the available proceeds of the judgment are insufficient to satisfy in full the liens herein provided, the proceeds shall, after all common-law liens have been satisfied in full, be distributed pro rata between the lienors without any priority among them.

If the judgment debtor so elects the judgment debtor may pay the amount of the judgment to the chief clerk of the circuit or clerk of the district court in which the judgment is rendered and thereby be released from any further obligation to the judgment creditor and to the lienor. In the event the judgment debtor pays the amount of the judgment to the clerk the lien shall attach to the sum so paid.

The liens may be enforced by action of the lienor in the circuit court of the judicial circuit in which judgment was rendered. Jurisdiction is conferred upon the circuit courts to hear and determine all actions brought or instituted to enforce and foreclose the liens, and the proceedings had before the circuit court shall be conducted in the same manner and form as ordinary foreclosure proceedings.] subject to section 663-10."

SECTION 2. Section 663-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) In any civil action in tort, the court, before any judgment or stipulation to dismiss the action is approved, shall determine the validity of any claim of a lien against the amount of the judgment or settlement by any person who files timely notice of the claim to the court or to the parties in the action. The judgment entered, or the order subsequent to settlement, shall include a statement of the amounts, if any, due and owing to any person determined by the court to be a holder of a valid lien and to be paid to the lienholder out of the amount of the corresponding special damages recovered by the judgment or settlement. In determining the payment due the lienholder, the court shall deduct from the payment a reasonable sum for the costs and fees incurred by the party who brought the civil action in tort. As used in this section, [lien] "lien" means a lien arising out of a claim for payment due a health care provider or payments made or indemnified from collateral sources, including health insurance or benefits, for costs and expenses arising out of the injury which is the subject of the civil action in tort. If there is a settlement before suit is filed or there is no civil action pending, then any party may petition a court of competent jurisdiction for a determination of the validity and amount of any claim of a lien."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.