Personal Injury Settlements in Bankruptcy
My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: south carolina
My mom passed away almost two years ago. We filled and was award a settlement from the hospital. In the orginal final papers it said my dad got 50% and my brother 25% and I would recieve 25%. My brother and i were sent a letter from the lawyer asking us to sign off so as dad would be get 100% and then divide it to us. We were told it was due to my moms will be so outdated and due to tax purpose. We did so. At the same time my dad was filling bankcrupcy. Long story short we were award 600,000, the lawyers recieved 240,000 the bankcrupcy took all but 45,000. my question is this..if we had not signed off on the settlement would the bankcrupcy have been able to take our share of the settlement?
Thank you
Lori
Re: Personal Injury Settlements in Bankruptcy
Odds are. Big mistake on your part.
Re: Personal Injury Settlements in Bankruptcy
Is there anything we can do about it now?
Re: Personal Injury Settlements in Bankruptcy
Complain bitterly? Cry in your coffee?
Seriously - you decided that all the money would go to dad, and he had a ton of debt. His creditors have the money now, and they're not going to give it back.
You can consult another lawyer about the distribution and the lawyer's advice to see if in fact the advice was sound and if you have any recourse against the law firm. We don't know if that advice was given before or after the bankruptcy was filed, or whether the lawyer was aware of any bankruptcy or plan to file for bankruptcy protection.
Re: Personal Injury Settlements in Bankruptcy
Whats really upsetting is the malpractice lawyers should have warned us. They knew he was filling and we just trusted in that. Its not so much the money (excpet my brother really could have used it) as the principle. thank you for your reply appreciate it