Kansas Statutes 74-7312. State’s subrogation rights; actions for damages; board’s involvement; disposition of moneys recovered
(a) If compensation is awarded, the state shall be subrogated to all the claimant‘s rights to receive or recover benefits or advantages for economic loss for which, and only to the extent that, compensation is awarded, from a source which is or, if readily available to the victim or claimant would be, a collateral source.
(b) As a prerequisite to bringing an action to recover damages related to criminally injurious conduct upon which compensation is claimed or awarded, the claimant must give the board prior written notice of the proposed action. After receiving the notice, the board shall promptly: (1) Join in the action as a party plaintiff to recover compensation awarded; (2) require the claimant to bring the action in the claimant’s individual name, as a trustee in behalf of the state, to recover compensation awarded; or (3) reserve its rights and do neither in the proposed action. If, as requested by the board, the action is brought by the claimant as trustee and the claimant recovers compensation awarded by the board, the claimant may deduct from the compensation recovered in behalf of the state the reasonable expenses, including attorney fees, allocable by the court for that recovery.
Terms Used In Kansas Statutes 74-7312
- Board: means the crime victims compensation board established under Kan. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Claimant: means any of the following persons claiming compensation under this act:
(1) A victim;
(2) a dependent of a deceased victim;
(3) a third person other than a collateral source; or
(4) an authorized person acting on behalf of any of them. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Collateral source: means the net financial benefit, after deduction of taxes, legal fees, costs, expenses of litigation, liens, offsets, credits or other deductions, from a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss otherwise reparable under this act which the victim or claimant has received, or which is readily available to the victim or claimant, from:
(1) The offender;
(2) the government of the United States or any agency thereof, a state or any of its political subdivisions or an instrumentality or two or more states, unless the law providing for the benefits or advantages makes them excess or secondary to benefits under this act;
(3) social security, medicare and medicaid;
(4) state-required temporary nonoccupational disability insurance;
(5) workers' compensation;
(6) wage continuation programs of any employer;
(7) proceeds of a contract of insurance payable to the victim for loss which the victim sustained because of the criminally injurious conduct;
(8) a contract providing prepaid hospital and other health care services or benefits for disability; or
(9) damages awarded in a tort action. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Criminally injurious conduct: means conduct that: (1) (A) Occurs or is attempted in this state or occurs to a person whose domicile is in Kansas who is the victim of a violent crime which occurs in another state, possession, or territory of the United States of America may make an application for compensation if:
(i) The crimes would be compensable had it occurred in the state of Kansas; and
(ii) the places the crimes occurred are states, possessions or territories of the United States of America not having eligible crime victim compensation programs;
(B) poses a substantial threat or personal injury or death; and
(C) either is punishable by fine, imprisonment or death or would be so punishable but for the fact that the person engaging in the conduct lacked capacity to commit the crime under the laws of this state; or
(2) is an act of terrorism, as defined in 18 U. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Economic loss: means economic detriment consisting only of allowable expense, work loss, replacement services loss and, if injury causes death, dependent's economic loss and dependent's replacement service loss. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Noneconomic detriment: means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment and nonpecuniary damage. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
- Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
- Victim: means a person who suffers personal injury or death as a result of:
(1) Criminally injurious conduct;
(2) the good faith effort of any person to prevent criminally injurious conduct;
(3) the good faith effort of any person to apprehend a person suspected of engaging in criminally injurious conduct; or
(4) witnessing a violent crime when the person was 16 years of age or younger at the time the crime was committed. See Kansas Statutes 74-7301
(c) If a judgment or verdict indicates separately economic loss and noneconomic detriment, payments on the judgment shall be allocated between them in proportion to the amounts indicated. In an action in a court of this state arising out of criminally injurious conduct, the judge, on timely motion, shall direct the jury to return a special verdict, indicating separately the award for noneconomic detriment, punitive damages, if any, and the award for economic loss.
(d) Any moneys received or recovered by or on behalf of the state pursuant to the provisions of this section, less any deductions allowable hereunder, shall be deposited in the state treasury and credited to the crime victims compensation fund.