I might get served by the sheriff this month for cicil lawsuit credit card debt & wanted to know how many days or weeks is the court date scheduled on? So that i can have enough time to file for bankruptcy & avoid a judgement & garnishment…

I posted an earlier question asking for help in an accident I was recently involved in ((DUI/meth abuser hits bicyclist = broken back). I received a lot of useful info, but have a few more questions. I’ve been told by some people that have successfully sued the negligent driver’s insurance company and won. The cases were won based on the driver having prior DUI’s and the company still insuring the driver. Is this beyond the scope of possibility? Does anyone know of something like this happening with some some degree of success?

Otherwise, aside from the driver getting charged with DUI and felony assault (due to the severity of my injury)- I get no recourse. Nothing to help pay my insurance deductibles, nothing for pain (of which I’m in a lot of) and suffering. This is all based on the driver having no personal assets and the fact that he will most likely declare bankruptcy if I try to sue him for future wages, etc. He is, after all, a meth addict. Any advice is appreciated!

Should we wait until the court hearing is adjourned and our bankruptcy is done completely (this month)? We are facing more battles with my health as a result of, I believe, is a form of malpractice. However, I have heard that if a lawsuit is being filed, a bankruptcy cancels it out. I am not sure what my options are.
OK it is not a "form" it IS malpractice, for sure.

Knowing that if you’re hit by an uninsured motorist and get your car totalled the motorist will declare bankruptcy and you won’t get a dime. Before you say anything, uninsured motorist coverage only applies to bodily injury.

My case involved a personal injury claim. During this period I also filed for bankruptcy, and my lawyer proceeded with the case. Now it looks like after paying him off, and the creditors, and bankruptcy people (trustee/his attorneys) – I’m not even getting 1/3 of the initial settlement!!! Is this fair? What can I do?

My husband had a motorcycle accident on 3/2/08. We hired an attorney and they have been doing their thing.

The accident was NOT my husbands fault. The person who hit him was 18 years old and was under their parents insurance. The person who hit my husband only had 000. worth of insurance coverage for injury. The motorcycle my husband was driving did not have insurance yet. (Our stupid mistake)

The lawyer called my husband earlier today and said that if we settle now, we will get 500 total… and we’d get it pretty quick. Or we can wait (probably about a year) and we could take this to court where he (the lawyer) is sure we will get a bigger settlement, but he says that we may still only get the same amount as if we had settled now, because the rest of the responsibilty to pay would be on the family of the person who hit us. He (the lawyer) says that they can just file bankruptcy and then not have to pay us at all. Is this just how it works?

My husband was very seriously injured. He still cannot work and the Drs. told him it would be a year or more before he is able to go back to work. If we settle now, that amount wont even cover his salary that he was making for a year! How is this fair and is there anything we can do to get what we deserve in this situation?

We don’t want some crazy amount of money, but we were a 2 income family. We have done a tremendous amount of work to be able to scrape by so far with only one income. We will soon have to start selling stuff that we own just to keep up with our monthly payments. (And we don’t have debt besides one car and our house… this is just for our reg. monthly payments for utilities, morgtage, and such… no credit card debt or anything like that.) Not to mention the stress that we have had over the past 6 months… and the stress that is yet to come.

If anyone has been in a similar situation and can offer some advice it would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance…
Thanks libertyman! I did need that, as it was a ? that was running through my mind too!
I AM worried about future medical payments. My husband still has a few surgeries ahead of him and I want to make sure he will be covered for all of it.
I have tried SSI and we have too many assets at this time. You have to lose pretty much everything and live in a shoebox before you can get SSI. (Which doesn’t make sense since they take it from you weekly weather you like it or not.) We have filed for disability for him but was told it could take up to 2 years before we’d hear anything…

My father received a personal settlement but filed bankruptcy a year ago, received a personal settlement claim, can they take that money?