Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
I got into a car accident on april 29th 2010 and I hired an attorney for my personal injury. He sent me a settlement release form via email on September 22nd 2010. In which I signed and sent back. He recieved a check for $15,000.00 from the other party insurance company. On October 5th 2010, I emailed my attorney because I havent heard anything. He responded that he is waiting on the final medial lien. I have sent 15 emails to him since that time and on November 16, 2010 I wrote him and told him I feel I was being screwed over and he responded that medical takes there sweet time and I need to be patient. Since then I have been doing my own calling back and forth to medi-cal and Health Net to find out whats taking so long for my attorney to recieve the final medical lien. However I was informed by medi-cal that I can recieve some of my money owed to me while waiting on this medical lien. I sent a email to my attorney to find out how true this was and never recieved a response. Even as early as today I emailed him about the medical lien and he still wont respond. My question is am i entitled to recieve any portion of the settlement while I wait on this medical lien to be recieved and also does it really take this long for a medical lien to be recieved.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Unfortunately, it is true that Medi-Cal does take time in getting a final accounting to the attorney. That said, if there's a ballpark figure for the Medi-Cal lien, he should be able to provide you with at least a portion of the funds that would be undisputed. If he were to disburse too much to you, the money to reimburse Medi-Cal would come out of his own pocket, which I'm sure is what he wants to avoid.
I can't add much to what the attorney has noted above. Contacts with MediCal can be difficult, and they are not very responsive. However, I would add that you are now about 2.5 months since you signed the settlement agreement. I would say that that is not an unusually long time. Oftentimes,when an attorney knows that MediCal is involved, he will contact them early on, and not wait until the case settles. But there could be a numbe of reasons why the attorney waited. And as noted, if the attorney estimates wrong as to what MediCal is owed, then he may have to go out of pocket, and that is something that he does not want to do.
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