Personal Injury and Bankruptcy

No.1 Article of Personal Injury Liability

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Bankruptcy law may be more relevant to your personal injury case than you realize. As with any specialized area of law, you should consult with a bankruptcy attorney if you have any questions or concerns about how a bankruptcy filing affects your personal injury case. This description briefly examines the interaction of bankruptcy law and personal injury judgments from the perspective of the judgment debtor and the personal injury plaintiff debtor.

If you have been awarded a personal injury judgment, the defendant may decide to file bankruptcy in an attempt to dismissal liability for the judgment. In other words, an private or corporate defendant might opt to file bankruptcy instead of satisfy your judgment if the equilibrium tips in favor of bankruptcy. This may occur if the defendant was uninsured or underinsured for the judgment (like an uninsured driver in a car emergency case), and the defendant has so few assets that they can be thoroughly protected in a bankruptcy. While there are other potentially negative implications to filing a bankruptcy, avoiding your personal injury judgment may be incentive enough for a bankruptcy filing.

Personal Injury Liability

There are some exceptions to dismissal of personal injury judgments, however. For example, a personal injury defendant cannot dismissal a debt which arose from injuries he or she caused when operating a motor car while intoxicated. 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(9) If you receive consideration that a defendant in your personal injury case has filed bankruptcy, you should check with a bankruptcy lawyer in your jurisdiction to see if there are any other exceptions to dismissal which may apply.

Personal Injury and Bankruptcy

A personal injury plaintiff may also decide to file bankruptcy due to the economic stressors which usually arise during lengthy personal injury litigation, such as big medical bills and continued periods of unemployment. Personal injury lawsuits can take years to resolve, and it is inherent that your creditors may make bankruptcy inescapable in the meantime. You must practice great care in this area, and be sure to ask your bankruptcy attorney either filing bankruptcy could adversely influence your personal injury award.

In a episode 7 bankruptcy, the Trustee reviews your asset to decide either there are any non-exempt assets which could be seized and liquidated for the benefit of your creditors. Some jurisdictions safe personal injury settlements from seizure in a episode 7 bankruptcy, but others do not. Similarly, in some jurisdictions, personal injury awards are a form of disposable earnings you must submit to the Trustee in a episode 13 bankruptcy. If there is even a opening you could receive a personal injury award, it is imperative that you apprise your bankruptcy lawyer of this possibility so he or she can correlate either bankruptcy is truly standard for you. Otherwise, you risk seizure of the judgment which will ease the pressure of your medical and other bills.

Bankruptcy law is more complex than most personal injury suits, so it would commonly be inadvisable to use the same attorney for both purposes. Your bankruptcy and personal injury lawyers should be able to work together to maximize your financial gain.

Personal Injury and Bankruptcy