Blog Post

Colorado Accident & Injury Law Part III-Lien Issues In Auto Cases

Posted by: Michael Sawaya
March 18, 2009
Topic: Personal Injury

•· Lien issues involve an area of increasing Plaintiff counsel involvement, and one of growing liability for Plaintiff counsel. There are pecuniary and ethical concern. Long gone are the days when the Plaintiff attorney did not need to be concerned about who might have a third party claim to money that the client would be receiving. Now there is a substantial duty to inquire as to whether there is a claim by any third party, or governmental entity, that paid money (or who might be liable to pay money in the future with respect to Medicare), to determine whether that third party or governmental entity has a right to be repaid.

•· The med-pay auto insurer no longer has a valid subrogation claim, as stated in section II above. That has removed one area of problems in the Plaintiff's auto injury claim. Remaining as significant issues are liens of hospitals, liens of health care providers, liens of health insurers, liens for workers' compensation benefits, and Medicaid and Medicare liens.