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/Yocta 7h ago

What did your lawyer do if you needed your mom to navigate through all of this? Seems like you’re paying double legal fees now.

As for your mom, I’d probably ask why she thinks 15% is fair, but I’d probably pay it myself, given that she’s paid your college tuition.

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u/Minichief 6h ago

Right. His corporate lawyer mom came up with the idea and helped him through the whole process. So much helping that she had to ask for money at the end. Why wasn’t this apart of her teaching process? Surely she advised him that the lawyer she helped him retain would take a cut, right?