Fighting the Second Battle in the Personal Injury War

23 September 2024
Richard Bush
Fighting the Second Battle in the Personal Injury War

Many think of personal injury cases as a battle to recover full and fair compensation for an injured accident victim. But, that’s only half the war. Equally important is the battle to see how much of your settlement you get to keep.

Suppose you are an accident victim injured by a driver with only $25,000 of liability insurance. Unless you have underinsured motorist coverage of your own beyond that, circumstances might limit your recovery to $25,000.00.

But Medicare paid your emergency room bills and many other medical bills. That Medicare supplement plan you wisely purchased wants their money back too. Oh, and that other medical provider had you sign lots of papers, including one promising to pay their full bill out of any settlement.

What if it’s all more than the settlement? How much, if anything, goes in your pocket?

The laws are complicated and are different depending upon the type of bill payor involved (for example, Medicare, Medicaid, workers compensation, auto insurance, private health insurance). In many cases, including particularly governmental payors, the payor has the first crack at the money, and a settlement cannot lawfully be distributed without accounting for the claims.

At Green Haines Sgambati, we start work on the “second battle” as soon as we take the case, gathering the information we need to categorize and evaluate all the different claims on your settlement money. Then, during the settlement process, we use every reasonable avenue, including dispute, waiver, and compromise process so that we can put as much as we can in your pocket.

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