If you have additional questions, feel free to visit our website at http://www.lawmed.com, and don't forget to look at some of our other videos at http://www.youtube.com/hensonfuerst
If you have a settlement for any personal injury from a car wreck, fire, medical malpractice, a defective product or any other personal injury claim, then you need to watch this video. Your money is at stake.
David Henson of HensonFuerst Law Firm talks about LIENS: What they are... what they mean for you... and what they mean for your settlement dollars.
*** Principal Office of Henson & Fuerst, PA: 2501 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27607 ***
Hi, I'm David Henson with HensonFuerst. Today, I want to talk about liens. This is not the sexiest topic in the world, but for those of you who have personal injury cases, whether it involves a car wreck, medical malpractice, a defective product, fire, or anything else involving injury, then you need to listen up... because liens are something that can DRAMATICALLY affect how much money gets taken OUT of your settlement when your case is resolved.
First things first: what is a lien? Simply put, a lien is kind of like an IOU. When a person or entity claims that you owe them money, they can put a "lien" on the money you get out of your settlement. In a personal injury case, it is common for liens to be held by doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies, Medicare, or Medicaid. I will talk about Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance in later videos--they are a whole different category. Today I want to focus on liens by medical providers--claims that your doctors and hospitals can make against your settlement.
When a case resolves, there are often still outstanding medical bills that need to be paid. North Carolina law protects (to some extent) medical providers to make sure that they get at least SOMETHING out of your settlement.
It can get complex but, very broadly, the law says that if a medical provider gives your lawyer copies of your medical records and bills for free, then they will have what is called a "valid lien" on your case...as long as they provide written notice that they want the lien. A "valid lien" means that those doctors and hospitals are entitled to recoup up to 1/3 of your settlement dollars to cover the unpaid medical bills.
Now, some medical providers will not want to give copies of your medical records for free, and will charge us for records. In that case, they are called a "non-valid lienholder," which means that they DO NOT have a right to force payment of their bills out of your settlement. That does not mean that they give up the right to be paid--you still have to pay their bills. But it DOES mean that they can't legally force you and your lawyer to pay the bill out of the settlement.
In most cases, we encourage our clients to pay both valid and non-valid liens on a settlement, though, so that they end up owing less money or no money when their case is settled. We find that we can oftentimes negotiate aggressively with the non-valid medical providers to reduce the amounts that they require to be paid.
So, to recap: A lien is a claim by someone else for some of the money that you get from the settlement of your case. Our job as lawyers is to determine WHO has a right to be paid and HOW MUCH they have a right to be paid... AND to explain to our clients what their options are with regard to payment of these liens.
If you have additional, questions, please go to our website at www.lawmed.com. Again, this is David Henson. If you have questions, HensonFuerst has answers.
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