Legal Question in Personal Injury in New York

If any of your aunt's medical treatment was paid for by SSI, Medicair or Medicaid then these services are entitled to reimbursement. Your attorney should contact these agencies just prior to settling her case to get a final payoff amount. They should then submit them to the attorney or insurance carrier for the defendant to be considered in the final settlement numbers. Another option is to set up a special needs trust to have any settlement funds set into a trust for various expenses. A trust attorney should be consulted to discuss all aspects of how this works. Should you wish to dicuss this further or if your aunt is seeking legal representation please contact me at 347-702-4133 or at [email protected].

Yours truly,

Michael Krigsfeld, Esq.

My colleague above is correct. Public benefit services like Medicaid and SSI will likely cut off benefits if they become aware of any windfall to the recipient. They may give your aunt an option of retaining her recipient status if she keeps only a minimum (few thousand dollars) of her recovery and turns over the rest. Or, there is the special needs trust, complex and not inexpensive to set up. Her attorney should speak directly with the benefit providers. Best, M. E. Zuller