GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

1983 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 776

HOUSE BILL 596

 

AN ACT AUTHORIZING AN INJURED PARTY TO TESTIFY AS TO MEDICAL CHARGES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  Chapter 8 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:

"§ 8-58.1. Injured party as witness when medical charges at issue.-Whenever an issue of hospital, medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or funeral charges arises in any civil proceeding, the injured party or his guardian, administrator, or executor is competent to give evidence regarding the amount of such charges, provided that records or copies of such charges accompany such testimony. The testimony of such a person establishes a rebuttable presumption of the reasonableness of the amount of the charges."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective October 1, 1983, and shall apply to all civil trials commencing on or after that date.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 15th day of July, 1983.