Legal Question in Personal Injury in Texas

I assume you are talking about a personal injury case. There is no "customary" procedure for this. In most personal injury cases, there are liens and subrogation rights which have superior rights to the settlement fund than you do. Any unpaid hospital emergency bill has a lien by law and must be paid before you get anything. Health insurance policies typically have a contractual right to reimbursement that is superior to your right. If the doctors treat on a letter of protection, they have a right to be paid before you. So the attorney cannot give you any money until these obligations are paid for.

If your settlement is considerably higher than the bills and you want to just pay them in full, you can do this and get whatever is left after medical and legal expenses, bills and fees. Now, these liens can be negotiated to a lower amount. But if your attorney tries to do that mid-case, thanks to tort reform it can devalue your case against the other remaining parties. Also, lien holders often wont negotiate when they know you are seeking money from other sources. So strategically, it usually makes more sense to wait until all claims are resolved so that your attorney can negotiate your reimbursement obligations down without hurting the value of your case. That way, you get the maximum amount out of the settlement in your pocket.