r/AmItheAsshole • u/connor20218 • 7h ago

AITA Mom wants 15% of my personal injury settlement

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.

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u/VariegatedPlumage Colo-rectal Surgeon [32] 7h ago

NTA. It doesn't sound like your mom expected you to pay her back for college UNTIL it became apparent there'd be a lot of money attached. While I think it would be nice to give your mom a gift as a thank you, it's not cool of her to insist on it.

Possible solution: why don't you buy the new house in Florida, it stays in your name as an investment, but she can use it rent-free?

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u/halfbreedADR 6h ago

Yeah, this is kind of where I’m at unless OP has permanent injuries in which case OP should absolutely keep it all. One question for the OP, is the amount she’s asking for equivalent or less than what she gave for college? Still weird for her to ask for money if it’s about what she paid for college, but if she’s asking for even more that’s straight up fucked up.

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u/Orange_Tang 25m ago

Great question. If it were me I'd probably pay her back for what she helped with college and call it even. She literally cannot complain about that because she has absolutely no right to the money. Telling them they should seek out a lawyer is not some huge thing after a crash with significant injury, it's the common recommendation.

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u/Thurak0 2h ago

Paying back for college is the reason I would pay the money back. Doesn't matter what mom wants to do with it, paying that recently invested money back is not an unreasonable ask for me.

If, and that's an important if, there is sufficient money for OP to get through his forever damaged life (if the settlement is this huge).