Your case settled. The insurance company sends a release for you to sign. Once it has the signed release back, it issues the settlement check to our firm’s trust account, not to you. Texas lawyers have to keep client money in a separate trust account, and we can’t pay anyone out of it until the check clears.
Paying off the claims against your settlement
While the check clears, we finish the part most people never hear about. A hospital lien under Chapter 55 of the Texas Property Code, your health plan’s reimbursement claim, Medicare or Medicaid if they paid anything, and any doctor who treated you on a letter of protection all have to be resolved before we pay you. Every one of those numbers is negotiable, and every dollar we knock off goes to you instead of them.
Medicare is the slow one. Its final demand can take weeks, and we can’t skip it, because federal law lets Medicare come after both you and your lawyer if it isn’t repaid.
Your settlement statement
Before any money goes out, you get a written settlement statement. Texas Disciplinary Rule 1.04(d) requires one at the end of every contingent fee case. It shows the gross settlement, the attorney’s fee, each case expense, each medical payoff and your net. You review it and sign it, and then we cut your check. If you want, we’ll sit down and go through every line with you first.
How long it takes
A clean case with no liens can wrap up within a few weeks of the signed release. A case with Medicare or a self-funded employer health plan takes longer, because those payers set their own pace. We push them.
Holding an offer and not sure what you’d walk away with?
Call (713) 664-4000 or fill out the form on this page, and we’ll run the numbers with you for free. We work on a contingency fee: no fee unless we recover, and if we don’t recover, you don’t owe us for case expenses either. You can also read how much a personal injury lawyer costs or go back to our Houston personal injury lawyer page.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.