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Question about PI awards
| grievance officer | 07/20/25 |
| "'"'"""''" | 07/20/25 |
| grievance officer | 07/20/25 |
| "'"'"""''" | 07/20/25 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: July 20th, 2025 2:57 PM Author: grievance officer Let's say my lawyer's contingency fee is 30%. If I incur $100,000 of out of pocket medical expenses, which I then recover from the defendant, do I pay 30% of the recovery to my lawyer? Such that the higher my out of pocket medical expenses are, the less money I get on net, with that money going to my lawyer instead? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5752685&forum_id=2...id#49116705) |
Date: July 20th, 2025 3:06 PM Author: "'"'"""''" You are entitled to compensatory damages. Those damages include medical bills pain and suffering disfigurement embarrassment future medical costs future pain and suffering lost wages
Also it’s not an “award” per se but rather just recompense for your damages. |
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Date: July 20th, 2025 4:25 PM Author: grievance officer But does the lawyer get 30% of the amount I am reimbursed for out of pocket medical expenses. So in my example, do I end up out of pocket $0 (having spent $100k and been reminded $100k) or out of pocket $30k (having spent $100k, been reimbursed $100k, but being required to pay $30k of that to the lawyer) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5752685&forum_id=2...id#49116862) |
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Date: July 20th, 2025 4:29 PM Author: "'"'"""''" Let’s say you settle the case for $300k. Just as a nice round number. Let’s say that’s all the coverage that’s available. Atty fees are usually 33 percent. Let’s say costs to advance the case were $10k which the atty advanced. From the $300k Settlement, atty would take his fee of $100k and recoup his $10k in costs, leaving you with $190k. In this scenario you would net $90k because you had paid all your medical bills as if you had no health insurance.
In most instance people have health insurance either thru work or thru Medicaid/medicare to pay the $100k in medical bills, and that health insurance has a lien on settlement proceeds. Usually much less than the actual bills. Let’s say you had health insurance pick up the $100k in medical costs, and they exert a $10k lien meaning they want to be paid back $10k of the $100k they spent from any settlement
In that scenario, the atty would receive his $100k in fees and recoup his costs of $10k. From the remaining $190k, you pay $10k to health insurance to cover the lien, which leaves you with a net of $180k.
In the unlikely situation that you have no health insurance at all and have $100k in medical bills, the atty would direct you not to pay the bills until the case settled, and would send the doctors a letter saying that you will pay the doctor at the time of settlement from the settlement. Then, when the case settles, the atty will negotiate with your doctor to reduce the $100k debt to something significantly less. The doctor willingly agrees because of a statute I will speak of momentarily if you are still interested. |