Hi everybody, this is Jill Bollwork, a personal injury attorney in St. Louis with Bullwork & Associates. Today, I want to answer a question we receive all the time:
Can I settle my personal injury case without a lawyer?
The short answer is yes. If you believe the settlement offer is fair, you are legally allowed to settle your personal injury claim on your own.
Before You Accept a Personal Injury Settlement
However, before you accept any settlement, it is critical to make sure you will actually be able to keep the money you receive.
If anyone other than you paid for your medical treatment, there is a strong likelihood they will seek repayment from your settlement. These repayment rights are often referred to as liens or subrogation claims.
Medical Benefit Repayment and Liens
If you are a Medicare recipient, Medicare must be reimbursed from your personal injury settlement. Failing to repay Medicare can result in penalties and even a suspension of your future benefits.
Medicaid works in a similar way. If Medicaid paid for your medical care and is not reimbursed, you could jeopardize your eligibility for future benefits.
If your medical treatment was paid for by a government health plan, such as TRICARE, that plan will also seek repayment from your settlement.
The same is true if you received treatment through the Veterans Administration. The VA may assert a right to be repaid from your personal injury recovery.
What About Private Health Insurance?
Private health insurance repayment is more complicated. In some cases, health insurance companies have the right to be reimbursed. In other cases, they do not.
Here in Missouri, this issue depends on several factors. I will be publishing additional videos that go into more detail about how health insurance reimbursement works in personal injury cases.
Medical Provider Liens
There is one more important issue to consider. If your health insurance did not pay some of your medical bills—or if you did not have health insurance at all—medical providers may have placed a lien on your case.
A medical lien is a legal obligation that requires the insurance company to pay the medical provider directly from your settlement.
You want to be in control of that process, not the insurance company.
Final Thoughts on Settling Without a Lawyer
Before accepting any personal injury settlement, make sure you understand whether you will be required to repay Medicare, Medicaid, government health plans, private insurance, or medical providers.
Over the next few weeks, I will be creating a series of videos that address each of these repayment rights in more detail.
If you would like to learn more, be sure to follow along. Thanks for watching, and have a great day.