Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: case settled for pennies

When the lawyer says there are problems proving liability, he means that it will be difficult to prove that the landlord is responsible for what happened. Demonstrating how much your mother paid for her treatment has nothing to do with this issue. These documents would be enough to establish the amount of your mother's damages, but before she can collect anything she first must prove that the defendant is liable.

There is no such thing as a "default settlement." There are default judgments, but in most cases the defendant can have them set aside and that may be what happened here. If your mother has actually signed a settlement agreement for $1,250 (and the fact that her lawyer already has the check strongly suggests that she has), then there is probably nothing more she can do against the landlord.

Settlements for less than the full value of an injury are commonplace, especially where proving liability would be difficult. On the face of it, a $1,250 settlement of a $2,200 claim whith questionable liability sounds perfectly reasonable, though a more complete knowledge of the facts might lead me to a different conclusion.

The papers she is being asked to sign most likely are an agreement with the lawyer that the costs and fees he is charging are proper. If he lived up to his end of the agreement and settled the case for an amount your mother has already accepted, then there is probably no basis to complain about the result.