Category: personal injury

Personal injury settlements can help you recover the costs you’ve incurred as a result of someone else’s negligence in a car accident or other personal injury event. You may get a settlement award that provides for your medical care, which would include all medical expenses for surgeries, physical therapy, prescriptions, and other medical costs. 

You may also recover your lost wages in your compensation for being unable to work, along with other expenses, such as non-economic losses. However, the process of your personal injury claim may have forced you to file for bankruptcy. 

During the process of bankruptcy, you may wonder, “Can creditors garnish my injury settlement?” At Mazzu Law in New York, our attorneys represent victims in personal injury cases. Many of our clients worry, citing “creditors access to my injury settlement funds” and want to know what they can do about it. 

This informative article discusses the concerns that many personal injury victims have regarding their personal injury settlements and answers the question, “Can creditors take my personal injury settlement?”

What Are Personal Injury Settlements?

Personal injury settlements are the result of a favorable outcome in a civil lawsuit. The settlement amount will vary depending on the total of the expenses suffered by a victim as well as the type and extent of their injuries. 

With a personal injury settlement, you may recover money for your medical treatment and other losses. Due to the costs you’ve incurred, especially if you were already on shaky financial ground, you may need to file for bankruptcy. Under New York law, creditors may have some access to these funds, and understanding the partial exemptions can help you determine your next steps. 

Can Creditors Claim My Personal Injury Settlement?

In New York, federal or state exemptions can protect you in most cases when filing for bankruptcy. However, whether creditors can take your personal injury settlement during bankruptcy depends on a few factors.

Here is a look at when you may have cause for concern with the New York bankruptcy court and your personal injury settlement:

Wage Garnishments

A government agency or bankruptcy court may issue a court order that requires your employer to withhold some of your money from your paychecks. This is known as wage garnishment, and there are legal limits that specify how much they can take.

Seizing a Debtor’s Assets

Creditors may also try to seize assets from a debtor but they can’t take what they want. They must get a legal judgment first, which would allow them to take non-exempt assets.

Medical Care Liens

After an accident in New York, creditors can place liens on a personal injury settlement. The lien is often placed by the medical provider who provided the medical care for the injuries that were addressed in the lawsuit. 

In some cases, health insurance coverage will not cover certain treatments, leaving victims to pay the medical bills. If you were not covered by your health insurance provider for these treatments, you may be asked to sign a lien stating that the provider has the right to recover these costs from your personal injury settlement. This tends to be common in New York as many people either have no health insurance or their coverage is inadequate.

Child Support Liens

If you have to pay child support, then you should know that New York takes child support payments very seriously. Hence, liens can be issued for overdue child support on personal injury settlements.

Unpaid Taxes

You should know that if you have any unpaid taxes, the federal government does not need to issue an order to garnish your wages. They can simply issue this ruling and take wages to satisfy unpaid debts for state and federal taxes.

Just when you thought your bank account would be back in good standing, another legal proceeding may arise that could allow debt collectors to take part of your settlement during bankruptcy. However, personal injury victims have ways they can protect themselves to a degree. It is always best to discuss your unique circumstances with a financial advisor and a Buffalo personal injury lawyer to find the best way to proceed.   

Federal Bankruptcy Exemptions

If you file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, certain assets will not be allowed for bankruptcy exemption. In New York State, you have the option to apply for state or federal exemptions. Since federal law provides more generous guidelines in this regard, many personal injury victims choose to go that route. Here is a look at those exemptions:

Personal Injury Settlements

Federal law allows exemptions for personal injury settlements of up to $25,180. However, be aware that the exemption for this only applies to the economic damages in your settlement amount, such as your medical expenses or lost income. It will not apply to non-economic damages as that amount is routinely adjusted due to inflation.

Wildcard Exemptions

You may also be able to get a wildcard exemption. A wildcard exemption lets you protect anything you want, up to the value of $13,900 for any non-exempt asset. Some people use this to protect their home’s equity but in those cases, it may be a lower amount. 

If you use New York’s exemptions for your settlement during bankruptcy, the exemption only allows for up to $8,500 on compensation that is for bodily injury only. 

How to Protect Your Personal Injury Compensation

When you have a personal injury case, it is of great importance to have a protected personal injury settlement from creditors. Here is what you can do to minimize the fallout and protect your compensation.

Keep Your Settlement Separate

Never put your settlement in the same checking account as your other funds, such as your paycheck. Known as commingling funds, creditors often argue that when it is in the same bank account as your other income, it will not be exempt.

One of the best things you can do after you get your settlement when you owe a large debt is to avoid depositing it into the same account. Create a savings account to keep the funds separate and you will be able to protect your settlement from creditors while undergoing bankruptcy. 

Label Settlement Funds

If you are currently going through bankruptcy or there is a possibility you may file for it to assist with some of your debts, make sure your funds from the settlement are labeled. Remember, in bankruptcy, you can exempt the economic damages of your settlement from the collection of debts. 

Get Help with Bankruptcy and Debts

It can be overwhelming and frustrating as you deal with this process, especially after suffering injuries at the hands of someone else’s careless actions. You should speak with an attorney and a financial advisor about what the best course will be for you in your specific situation. With financial planning, you will be able to prepare for any debt collection while protecting what should rightfully be yours. 

How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help You Protect Your Personal Injury Settlement

When you have outstanding debts and loans, it just adds to your turmoil while you try to recover from your injuries. The compensation you receive should help you make your life as whole as possible again following your painful injuries. 

In some cases, victims involved in these circumstances may also face issues with employers over garnishment of wages. The laws afford you some protections, particularly if you have only one judgment of garnishment for your income. However, any more than that and you will have a lack of protection. Despite this, your employer does not have the right to terminate you, refuse to promote you, or take other negative actions against you.

Whether you are facing issues with garnishment or simply need help protecting your personal injury settlement, a personal injury attorney can help you. From the moment you have been injured by the negligent behavior of another person or entity, you should consult a lawyer.

At Mazzu Law, we provide comprehensive legal services that include investigating your case, gathering relevant evidence, and negotiating for your full and fair compensation. If there is a chance that you need to file for bankruptcy or your financial situation was dire prior to this injury, we will review all the factors and help you take the right steps to protect your settlement. 

We work to make sure you get to keep as much of this money as possible, especially if the defendant was the cause of your financial fallout. Contact our law office today to schedule a free initial consultation where we can review the factors of your case and help you find the best way to move forward. 

Employers must oversee their employees to supervise the work they do. Every employer must provide adequate supervision to prevent accidents and injuries. When an employer fails to adequately supervise their employees, they may be held liable for negligent supervision.

If you were hurt because your employer failed to uphold proper supervision, causing you injuries, you may have a negligent supervision claim. Mazzu Law is a team of personal injury attorneys who can help in cases where negligent supervision occurs. Our team is dedicated to your care and well-being and will fight for compensation for your injuries.

In this informative blog post, we discuss negligent supervision, the legal concepts surrounding it, and the steps you can take to recover your economic losses.

Understanding Negligent Supervision

Negligent supervision is a concept that is related to vicarious liability in which an employer may be held liable for an employee’s actions during the course of employment. It is often seen in nursing homes and daycare centers but it can and does happen in other places of employment. If a supervisor failed to keep employees safe and they suffered an injury, the supervisor could be held responsible.

In the workplace, failure to provide adequate supervision could lead to different types of employee misconduct, including sexual harassment or workplace violence. An employer’s failure to protect employees from these occurrences could result in a lawsuit if the employer knew or should have known about the transgression and done something to prevent it.

Common Negligent Supervision Cases

Supervisors and employers do not need to be involved in every single aspect of an employee’s employment. However, an employer may be held responsible when that employee does certain things, such as when an employer hires someone unsuitable, fails to prevent irresponsible conduct, or ignores allegations of misconduct among the employees. 

The best way to understand whether or not you have a negligent supervision case is to take a look at some examples. Here is how negligent supervision can occur in the workplace:

• An employer ignores the sexual harassment of an employee or encourages a corporate culture that permits this type of abhorrent behavior
• A trucking company fails to provide adequate training or falsifies trucker driving logs, leading to a serious accident that requires a truck accident lawyer
• Employers who engage in negligent hiring, allowing intoxicated workers to use heavy machinery that leads to an accident that causes injuries
• Having a negligent hiring process or the negligent retention of an employee who has violent tendencies while employers do not address the issues

Negligent supervision can occur in nursing homes when staff is not managed or supervised while administering medications, leading to harm suffered by elderly residents. It can also occur in daycare settings, which can endanger the children in the care of unscrupulous caregivers.

In a workplace setting, an employer has a general duty to keep every employee safe from harm. When they fail in that duty by not taking appropriate safety measures and tortious conduct causes harm to employees, they have direct liability. 

The impacts of negligent supervision can lead to a personal injury to those affected by the actions or inactions. Simply put, your employer has a legal duty to you in this employment relationship. When employers don’t supervise responsibly, you can seek justice for your injuries as a result of this lack of supervision. 

What Is the Legal Criteria for Negligent Supervision?

Negligent supervision is a civil claim that requires establishing negligence. In order for employers to be held liable for negligent supervision, four elements must be met. Here is how to prove negligent supervision:

The Employer Has a Legal Duty of Care

When it comes to negligent supervision, the first thing that must be proven is that the employer had a duty of care toward the employee who suffered harm. The duty of employers legally obligates them to take reasonable steps to prevent harm through their actions or inactions.

Employers must exercise reasonable care to any employee and third party who could become injured by the actions of another employee. The employer has this duty to every employee, client, and anyone else they interact with in the course of their job duties.

The Employer Breaches This Duty

After this duty is established, it must be shown that there was a breach of duty. When an employer fails to exercise reasonable care, they may not sufficiently monitor employees, engage in negligent hiring practices by ignoring warning signs, or neglect to implement policies that would prevent harm from being done to another employee.

Causation of Personal Injury

When employers breach the duty, it must then be shown that it caused a personal injury. Sometimes called the proximate cause, the injuries you sustained must have been caused by the negligence of your employer or supervisor. 

Adequate supervision could have prevented the incident that led to your harm. For example, if an employer failed to properly train an employee and that employee caused a serious work accident, the employer could be found liable if proper supervision could have prevented this occurrence.

Damages Resulted from Negligent Supervision

The last element that must be satisfied in a negligent supervision claim is that you suffered damages as a result of the breach. You could then seek to recover compensation for the damages you’ve endured. These may include the medical bills to treat your injuries, out-of-pocket expenses, and emotional distress. 

It is important to note that all four of these elements must be satisfied and established for a successful claim. If only one metric is met, there are no grounds for negligent supervision.

How Employers Can Avoid Negligent Supervision and Vicarious Liability

Every company should try to avoid a claim for negligent supervision. Taking the steps to make sure responsible policies and procedures are implemented can keep the workplace safe.

Employers should refrain from negligent hiring practices and make sure they conduct background checks to avoid dangerous or unsuitable personnel. Employees should make sure to notify their supervisors of any issues and document unsavory or hazardous behaviors.

Pursuing Your Negligent Supervision Claim

If negligent hiring or supervision resulted in your injuries, you should make sure you take the right steps for your claim. Make sure you have documentation of your employment, which can establish the relationship to show that your employer has a duty of care to you.

As for the harm you suffered, liability can only be assigned if you can prove that supervision was lacking. You should document everything, including emails you’ve sent about the relevant issue, photos, and any other items that can serve as evidence of your claim.

The most important step to take with these types of claims is to contact an attorney. The best attorney to consult is one who has experience with negligent supervision cases. Many corporate settings will be backed by their own litigators who will try to deny liability. When you have legal representation, you can fight back and get the money you deserve for the harm you have endured.

Find Out If You Have a Case of Negligent Supervision

It is important to understand whether or not your case is valid before taking legal action. As mentioned previously, the four elements of negligence must be established before you can proceed with your lawsuit.

Negligent supervision in the workplace should be taken seriously. Those in charge of supervising others should not shirk their duties to ensure that care and diligence are always upheld. This legal framework sets expectations for how any employer should reasonably behave. 

In the workplace, it is critical for employers to use quality hiring practices to choose qualified members to join the team. They must also provide proper training for those they choose to staff at their agency. Furthermore, supervision must be implemented to uphold the standards of care.

When any of these employer responsibilities fall by the wayside, it can be grounds for a negligent supervision claim. Any injuries or harm suffered as a result of neglecting these practices stands to endanger the welfare of all who work for the company. 

If you aren’t sure whether or not this is the case, you should contact Mazzu Law for legal assistance. You can schedule a free consultation where you can learn about the potential legal options in your circumstances. This gives you the chance to run the details of your case by a lawyer who fully understands what is required to have a valid claim of negligent supervision. 

Since this consultation is free, you can learn more about your legal rights and where to go from here. Contact Mazzu Law to discuss your situation and determine the next steps to take.