Sometimes when people have a personal injury case, they wonder whether their personal injury settlement in Tampa Palms will affect child support.
In Florida, damages for personal injury cases include economic damages for the reasonable value or expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care, and treatment necessarily or reasonably obtained in the past or to be obtained in the future. Economic damages also include lost wages or earnings in the past and any loss of ability to earn money in the future. Non-economic damages are those intangible damages including pain and suffering, disability or physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish, inconvenience, and loss of capacity of enjoyment of life suffered in the past and to be experienced in the future.
However, because a person has the right to bring each of the claims for damages in a personal injury case, it does not mean that the person has suffered each of these damages. For instance, a person may be injured, but are able to continue to work without missing any time off work or incurring lost wages.
Personal injury damages do not contemplate child support payments.
A personal injury case is an asset to the person who was injured. Oftentimes various entities will attempt to place a lien against any personal injury settlement proceeds for the payment or satisfaction of the lien amount. However, not all liens placed against a personal injury settlement are valid and/or timely asserted. It is the responsibility of the lien holder to legally and timely notify the attorney for the injured party of the lien and validly assert it against any settlement proceeds.
To determine whether a personal injury settlement in Tampa Palms will affect child support is a specific fact driven evaluation that is best determined on an individual case basis. For any questions, please feel free to contact our office for a free case evaluation.