A new New York law put into place in January 2006 means that when you settle your wrongful death case, you will be entitled to earn interest on your money, while you wait for the Surrogate's Court to finalize your settlement.
In the past, when a wrongful death case was settled, litigants needed to wait for approval from the Surrogate's Court in order to have the Court oversee and supervise how the monies would be distributed to the family members. The problem was that the Surrogate's Court would often take many months to reach a conclusion before rendering a final decision that allowed the litigants the approval necessary to obtain their settlement monies. During those months spent waiting for court approval, their settlement money was being held by the insurance companies, and gaining interest for the benefit of the insurance companies.
This has now changed.
When a wrongful death suit is tentatively settled now, your attorney must apply to the TRIAL court for permission to tentatively settle the case. Once the trial court grants their approval, the attorney is able to submit closing papers to the insurance company that will allow your lawyer to obtain your settlement check. From that check, the attorney will be able to immediately (subject to the trial court giving approval) retrieve his expenses that he has documented to the satisfaction of the court, and also be able to obtain his (or her) attorney's fee.
Once that has happened, the case then awaits final approval from the Surrogate's Court to decide how the settlement monies will be distributed. During this hiatus, interest is being generated for the benefit of the litigant, so that when the money is distributed, the interest is also divided according to the formula worked out by the court.
Gerry Oginski is an experienced New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney and practices exclusively in the State of New York. He has tirelessly represented injured victims in all types of medical malpractice and injury cases in the last 19 years. As a solo practitioner he is able to devote 100% of his time to each individual client. A client is never a file number in his office.
Take a look at Gerry's website http://www.oginski-law.com and read his free special reports on malpractice and accident law. Read actual testimony of real doctors in medical malpractice cases. Learn answers to your legal questions. We have over 200 FAQs to the most interesting legal questions. Read about his success stories. Read the latest injury and malpractice news. I guarantee there's something for you. http://www.oginski-law.com 516-487-8207
Also, take a look at Gerry's FREE NY Medical Malpractice video tutorials at http://medicalmalpracticetutorial.blogspot.com
I swear, there are so many different types of lawyers these days. Do you think they all study every type of law? Or do they just specialize in one type, like DUI or something?
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