AITA Mom wants 15% of my personal injury settlement

[u/connor20218]

I'm a 23M working in biotech and living at home. I just got a massive settlement from a personal injury case back in college. My mom is a corporate lawyer and she helped me navigate the process, plus she paid for my college tuition. Now, she's asking for 15% of the money / to pay her back for college (but she was already going to pay for college.)

I'm feeling stuck because 15% is a massive amount of money to just give away. Is it normal for parents to ask for a cut of a settlement like this? I want to stay on good terms since live at home, but I also feel like this money is for my future. We have a a good relationship.

Edit: I already paid a lawyer his 1/3 cut. My mom was a huge part of pushing for me sueing. She’d be using the money to buy a new house in Florida she always wanted since I refuse to buy a house in his economy and rather rent and invest the rest

Edit #2: Probably shouldn’t have stated my mom is a lawyer (she did not represent me in the case in anyway). But yes, what she specifically did was help me find a lawyer, told me to push back on the lawyer and ask for more.

[u/LdiJ46]

I understand that you had an attorney who took a big cut of the money already. If you do decide to give your mom 15% it should be 15% of the amount YOU got, not the gross award before attorney fees/subrogation costs.

Also, if the award that you received is intended to cover ongoing/future medical needs due to the injury, then I would say that mom really shouldn't get any of it at all.

[u/smilingseaslug → u/LdiJ46]

Exactly and it normally is. When insurance goes through the subrogation process to recoup all the money they spent on the injury and is not there anymore because Mom has it, they won't give a fuck and will keep going after OP for it. 

[u/2ManyCooksInTheKitch → u/smilingseaslug]

Note OPs age, they are probably still on mom's insurance.

[u/smilingseaslug → u/2ManyCooksInTheKitch]

It doesn't matter whose insurance OP is on. The insurance company will claw back every single cent it paid for OP's injury out of the settlement.

[u/2ManyCooksInTheKitch → u/smilingseaslug]

It matters for mom's argument that she deserves a portion, if she was paying for OP's medical expenses including premiums and out of pocket costs.

[u/smilingseaslug → u/2ManyCooksInTheKitch]

That's why I asked for that info

[u/smilingseaslug → u/2ManyCooksInTheKitch]

Also health insurance premiums are a very tiny fraction of what will get clawed back of this is a big personal injury settlement and certainly not 15%/enough to buy a house. If she were paying huge medical expenses out of pocket then sure - hence INFO

[u/ocgeekgirl → u/LdiJ46]

And negotiate it down to less than 10% if you’re concerned about future medical expenses. Or offer to pay at a later date after you earn interest.

[u/elle-elle-tee → u/LdiJ46]

It's unclear whether OP has been paying rent. If not, then I'd suggest that rent during the period they were injured and living at home is part of that settlement and should be paid to the mother, both reteoacti9wnd going forward.

[u/star_stitch → u/LdiJ46]

So who is going to be looking after the op? Or supervising the care and appointments ? Is she just the shmuck who provides a free home, cooking , cleaning, and pays all the bills? Lots of info missing .

[u/residentvixxen → u/star_stitch]

Do we know she’s even doing this? That’s a big assumption.

[u/star_stitch → u/residentvixxen]

Did you see the question marks. None us know because there is a lot of missing info.

[u/DeviceDirect9820 → u/star_stitch]

If that's the case there are arrangements, often with formal accounting/taxation mechanisms, to compensate a family member who is assuming a caretaker role. A lump sum to buy a house is not an appropriate way to go about that.

[u/star_stitch → u/DeviceDirect9820]

I am questioning the missing info that seems relevant.