Quote Quoting DarrinB
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Even if my payment was over 1 year ago? is there a time limit as to when you receive a personal injury claim and when you file bankruptcy?
Let’s get some details here to sort this out. Are you the person who has to pay out money in the personal injury settlement or the one who is to be paid in the settlement?

If you are the one that has to pay, what kind of personal injury was involved — a DUI accident, some other auto accident, something else? And have you paid any of it? If so, how long before the bankruptcy petition filing did you pay it?

If you are the one who is getting paid in the settlement, are you still owed some or all of what you are due under the settlement? If you have received some or all of it, do you still have it? If the answer is no, what did you do with the money?

As a general matter, if you are the one getting paid in the settlement then whatever you are owed that is not yet paid on the date you file the bankruptcy petition is an asset of the bankrupt estate and the trustee will use that to pay creditors unless you can exempt it. For money you already received, if you still have the cash that is of course an asset of the bankrupt estate, too. If you spent or gave the money away, then the details of when and how you spent/transferred the money will matter as to whether the trustee can recover it as a preference payment.

If you are the one who owes the money in the settlement then in most cases that obligation would be eligible for discharge in your bankruptcy, with the notable exception of DUI accidents — debts you owe from causing an accident while driving DUI are not dischargeable.