Month: September 2026

Attorney fees in a personal injury case are almost always calculated on the gross settlement before medical liens are deducted. That means your attorney’s contingency fee is calculated on the total settlement amount, and then the liens are paid from what remains after the fee comes out. Understanding that sequence matters because it directly affects […]

The percentage a personal injury lawyer takes from a settlement is almost always one-third, and that number is so widely understood as the standard that most people assume it is fixed by law or regulation. It is not. One-third is a market convention, not a legal requirement, and the actual percentage in your case depends […]

If you have a personal injury attorney handling your car accident case and a settlement has been reached, someone has probably told you that your money is in a trust account. That phrase sounds reassuring and opaque at the same time. It sounds like something that exists to protect you, but you may not know […]

They can try, and they frequently do. What matters is whether you are required to accept that language as a condition of receiving the settlement you agreed to, and the answer to that question is no, you are not. A settlement is a contract, and like any contract its terms are a product of negotiation […]

The moment settlement money lands in your bank account, something shifts. The long process of dealing with insurance companies, medical providers, attorneys, and paperwork is over, and what you have now is a sum of money that represents everything you went through to get it. For some people that sum is modest. For others it […]

The answer depends heavily on which creditors are asking, which state’s law applies, whether the money is still in a separate account or has been mixed with your other funds, and whether you are dealing with a judgment creditor or simply a debt collector making demands. Those distinctions are not technicalities. They are the actual […]

You have settled your car accident claim and the money is either in your account or on its way, and now you are wondering whether the IRS is going to want a piece of it. This is one of the most common questions people have after settling a personal injury case, and the answer is […]

Most people who receive a settlement check have spent months focused on getting to that moment. The accident, the treatment, the negotiations, the waiting. The check arriving feels like the finish line. In one important sense it is. In another sense, the decisions you make in the weeks and months after you receive it will […]

Settlement checks clear faster than most people expect and slower than most people want. The typical range for a settlement check deposited at a standard bank is one to five business days for the funds to become available, but that range has meaningful variation at both ends depending on the size of the check, the […]