Collateral Source
A collateral source is a source of payments of money that is literally collateral to the claim. For instance, monies that you may receive as an injured person through your health insurance policy or through the medical payments provision of your auto policy are technically a collateral source and as a general rule your receipt to those payments is inadmissible at trial.
The logic behind the collateral source rule is that because you had the good sense to obtain this other form of coverage, it should not work to the benefit of the party that injured you by in any way diminishing your claim.
There has been a great deal of controversy about the collateral source rule in that it allows in effect for double and sometimes triple recovery for the same injury therby increasing the overall cost of claims.Although there is some logic to that argument the countervailing argument is simply one of fairness i.e. if one party pays to have insurance then that person should be entitled to use it to the full extent without that coverage reducing benefits the injured party might be entitled to receive from the at fault party
