Generally, a letter of protection is a document where the doctor agrees to hold off on collection efforts pertaining to a medical bill in exchange for an agreement by the client (and commonly the lawyer also signs this agreement). This is done so that the bill will be satisfied from the proceeds of an injury settlement, if any, pertaining to such treatment. These are common and in many cases clients sign many of these when they have been in an accident.
The good thing about letters of protection is that for someone who does not have health insurance, the letter of protection allows them to treat for an accident where they otherwise may not have the ability to treat with that doctor or any doctor. Further, even if the client has health insurance, oftentimes the health insurance may have large co-pays or have such limited coverage that seeing the particular doctor may not be possible without the letter of protection.
