In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding reviews what happens after a personal injury case is resolved, including which individuals and entities are owed money.
Who do you owe after an injury case is resolved? Keep watching this video to find out the various individuals and entities that you may owe.
Hi. I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer and the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law.
So this, obviously, comes up at the end of the case, when you have a settlement or a verdict. The case is over, and now, the monies from that verdict or settlement need to be disbursed. So there’s several different entities and individuals that need to be paid out of that settlement in a typical situation. Now, again, every situation’s a little bit different.
So first you have the law firm that’s involved, right. Now, be mindful, your lawyer should be explaining to you that there’s two different categories that the law firms pay back. One are the attorney’s fees, which are a contingency fee, and the other are any expenses that were advanced by the firm to pursue your claim. So those come out of your settlement or verdict.
Then the other area, and the biggest one to try to grasp and why lawyers are so important, is health insurance providers, insurance companies, hospitals, who has medical liens or what’s called subrogation rights.
So one. If you have health insurance, your health insurer may be owed money back for benefits provided for your medical treatment out of your settlement or verdict. So, that needs to be discussed. It is a big area of law. It’s very difficult. Comes up every time in a personal injury case. But you have to know, do you owe that health insurance company back? You may not. Or you may owe ’em very little. So, very important.
Number two. Are there any hospital liens that have been filed by a emergency room hospital or any other providers? They’re are allowed to do that, by Georgia law, within 75 days of your treatment with them, if they’re not using health insurance. So that needs to be looked into, and then negotiated and paid.
And then three. Did you sign any lien agreements with anyone? Because you didn’t have health insurance, they were going to treat you on what’s called a lien. That normally involves your lawyer, so your lawyer’s gonna know that. We need to know what is charged there and then what, if anything, they’re willing to take off of that to be paid out of your settlement or verdict.
Then, that should be it, in most cases. Okay? The rest of the money is there for the plaintiff, for their pain and suffering that they’ve gone through, their lost wages, etc.
So that’s typically who is paid out of a settlement or verdict in a personal injury case.
If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to reach out to me. If you have a case that you would like to see if my firm can handle for you, feel free to reach out. You can comment to this video. You can go to our website at spauldinginjurylaw.com or give me a phone call. I have two phone numbers for you: 770-744-0780 or 470-695-9950. Thanks so much for watching this video.
