Lien holders get their money before any lawyer’s client can claim it.
Who might place a lien on money that you had expected to receive from a settlement?
A governmental body: Medicare would demand a portion of that money, if it had paid some of the medical expenses for an elderly accident victim.
A health insurance provider
Worker’s compensation: That entity could place a lien on a given claimant’s money, if an injured worker had sued a 3rd party, or had sued an insurance company.
Any lien holder should have helped the accident victim to cover earlier expenses. Hence, a lien holder’s request simply represents an effort to gain a deserved reimbursement.
The lawyer’s role, during the payment of lien holders
Personal Injury Lawyers In Highland stand ready to pay those that have placed a lien on a client’s settlement money. The insurance company normally sends the settlement money to the attorney of the claimant or plaintiff.
Lawyers start dealing with any lien holder even before the client/victim has received any compensation. If the lawyer’s statement were to suggest that the client might not win the ongoing personal injury case, the lien holder could be willing to reduce the amount of money requested.
Lawyers’ statements could prove useful, if an accident victim were to lose his or her personal injury case. Those statements could persuade a lien holder to cancel a demand, or lower the size of the demanded payment.
Some lien holders, such as Medicare are normally ready to accept an arrangement that calls for delivery of regular payments, each a portion of the demanded amount. A lawyer’s assistance could prove quite useful, during the process of arranging the timetable for the planned payments, as well as each payment’s size.
Still, no client should assume that his or her lawyer has developed a strong familiarity with Medicare’s expectations. An elderly client could discover that his or her attorney had never had to deal with Medicare in the past.
Do lien holders’ requests affect the promised delivery of settlement money?
No, the insurance companies do not put a hold on delivery of any settlement money, if the lien holders have not received their desired reimbursement. The insurance company only wants to receive the release form, the one signed by the injured victim. Once the insurance company has that signed form, it cannot be held responsible for any damages that were caused by the same accident.
The amount of money requested by a given lien holder would never come close to the size of any future damages, such as complications, following performance of agreed-upon treatments. That is why insurance companies put so much emphasis on that one piece of paper.