Options For Financial Troubles During A Personal Injury Lawsuit
If you have been injured and are unable to work, your finances can get to a pretty scary state while waiting for the settlement. Not only are you not making the money you used to make to pay for your living expenses, medical bills are piling up too. Before things get to the point of you losing your home, talk with your personal injury lawyer. While they cannot lend you any money, they do have some options that can help get you through to settlement. Here are a few you may be able to take advantage of.
Attorney Lien
When your doctors are giving you a hard time about your bills and threatening to stop their services until they receive money, your lawyer can offer them an attorney lien. There is no exchange of money involved, so this is legal. The attorney draws up paperwork stating that once the case is settled, the doctors will receive payment for services rendered. This money will come right off the top before anything is given to the patient. If the settlement is not for enough money to cover all your medical bills, you will be responsible for making some payment arrangement with the doctors.
Third-Party Loan
While a lawyer is not allowed to loan you money, they are allowed to help you find someone that will. Your attorney probably knows people or institutions that will lend you the money until the case is resolved. If necessary, there can be an attorney lien to the lender. While this will decrease any money you'd get from the settlement, it will be enough for you and your family to stay financially afloat.
Talk with Creditors
Whether it is your landlord, a mortgage company, or credit card collectors, when you have a lawyer send them a note explaining the situation, there is a better chance that they will work with you on payments. You may have already talked with them to try to get them to understand but having a lawyer do it gets better results.
Do not silently struggle with finances while waiting for a personal injury settlement; the added stress will only slow your recovery. Talk with your lawyer, taking all your bills to him to go over. Though they cannot give you money, they do have other avenues to take to help out. They do not want you suffering, or for you to lose your home. They have the resources to make sure you will get through the case financially stable.
For more information, contact a law office like Smith, Jordan, & Lavery, P.A. Attorneys at Law.