Consulting with Personal Injury Attorneys

A personal injury settlement or judgment can have serious and unexpected effects related to various governmental benefit programs.

How can I protect my client’s disability benefits after a law suit settlement?

The attorneys at Isenhour Bleck have extensive experience with government benefit programs.   Our law firm frequently consults with personal injury attorneys regarding the impact of a personal injury settlement on a client’s government benefits.

This includes not only the most common disability benefits such as SSI, SSDI, Medicaid and Medicare, but also food stamps, subsidized housing, veterans benefits, TANF, and Medicare Savings Programs, to name a few.  We can review the benefits your client is currently receiving or is likely to receive in the future.  We can then advise you regarding how a settlement will affect those benefits and what steps, if any, can be taken to protect those benefits. 

We can help personal injury attorneys evaluate a number of critical issues:

• The impact of Medicare and Medicaid subrogation claims
• Whether your client will lose government benefits once the settlement is received
• Whether your client’s settlement will result in the loss of benefits for other members of the household
• Whether a Special Needs Trust can protect your client’s benefits
• Whether there are other strategies in addition to or in lieu of a Special Needs Trust to protect benefits
• How to comply with Washington’s court rules on settling claims for incapacitated plaintiffs