Settling out of court?
I am about to settle out of court (possibly). mediation is comming up,if we do agree on an amount and settle ,how long after mediation will we actually have our money?
FYI: its a suit against a hospital
Answers:
I hope you have an attorney! If not, get one. You might think he will do very little work and then take 20% or 33% of the settlement, but it will be worth it. As the other poster said, most people do not recover anything for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is because the other party is broke, but I doubt the hospital is broke. Often times it is because people get so excited that they "won" that they forget that post-judgment or post-settlmenet recovery is an involved process.
It will probably take a couple of months for you to get your money, and that is if everyone is moving quickly and gets their act together. If the hospital stalls, then there will have to be a new court action to get them to pay up, etc., and that can all take time. You need a lawyer to navigate that for you -- including insisting on a firm timeline in mediation.
This is something that you should be asking your attorney.
agreeing to and settling out of court dose not mean you can or will collect your settlement amount, many times out of court as well as court adjudged settlements are never collected for various reasons.
The timing is probably something that will have to be agreed on in the mediation. Make sure you ask about this in the mediation, and that it is part of the final written mediation agreement at the end.
But I'm sure it will take time, depending on who the hospital sends to the mediation--whether it is someone who is authorized to make a final decision on behalf of the hospital, or whether the agreement will have to be approved later by someone higher up.
It's true that you can't always collect on a settlement, but given that it's a hospital, I'm assuming it's an established organization that is solvent and isn't going to disappear before you get your money. Not being able to collect is more of a concern if you're suing a person who is broke, or a business that goes bankrupt.
you should talk to your attorney about this, it all depends on what the stipulations of the settlement is.
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