When Your PI Plaintiff Files Bankruptcy: Estate, Trustee, and Timing
A client's bankruptcy can quietly gut your personal injury recovery — or bar the claim outright through judicial estoppel. Here is how the…
Category
Liens & Settlement
Medical liens, Letters of Protection, ERISA/MSP reductions, and settlement-distribution mechanics.
Building Settlement Allocation Worksheets That Survive Carrier and DHCS Review
A settlement allocation is only as good as the math and documents behind it. This is how to build a worksheet that a defense carrier signs…
Lien Math for Minors' Compromise Petitions in California
A minor's compromise petition puts your lien arithmetic in front of a judge who answers to the child, not to you. Here is how allocation re…
Self-Funded or Insured? Read the SPD and Form 5500 First
Whether a health plan is self-funded or insured decides whether California's made-whole and common fund rules survive ERISA preemption. The…
TRICARE and Military Health System Recovery in California PI Settlements
A TRICARE or military treatment facility bill is not a private subrogation problem with a federal accent. It is a federal claim, with its o…
Enforcing Letters of Protection After a California Defense Verdict
When a California PI case ends in a defense verdict, letters of protection do not disappear with the verdict form. Providers retain contrac…
Provider Lien Negotiation in California PI: Standard Reductions and How to Push Them
California's standard 2026 reduction bands on provider liens cluster tighter than most billing offices admit, and the spread between the fl…
Workers' Comp Liens in Third-Party PI: §§3859 and 3860 in Practice
The comp carrier sends a lien letter quoting the gross paid figure, then sits back while you do the work. Labor Code §§3859 and 3860 set th…
The Hospital Bill Write-Down and What It Does to the Lien
When a hospital accepts a discounted payment from a health plan, the gap between the chargemaster rate and the accepted amount is a lien-re…
Medicaid MCO Liens: Reimbursement Claims and the Anti-Lien Limits
When a Medicaid managed-care organization has paid medical bills related to a personal injury, its reimbursement claim in the settlement is…
Special Needs Trusts: Preserving SSI and Medicaid After a PI Settlement
When a personal-injury recovery would push a claimant off SSI and Medicaid, a special needs trust holds the funds without triggering disqua…
Cutting Down a Medicare Conditional Payment Before Final Demand
Traditional Medicare pays first and recovers later, but most firms accept the demand as written. Here is how to strip unrelated charges, ca…