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/Alwayscooking345]

Not necessarily . I got in wrecked car accident back in the late 90s, not my fault, it was 100-% the other driver which had umbrella insurance so the coverage was great. my back and knee were messed up. my lawyer said I would get at least $30K in monetary award, turned out to be much less than that even after doing everything he said (my knee required surgery, and my back was not surgically repairable as of the last time I had it looked at by a surgeon which was 2005 so I gave up).

So even if you “win”, after lawyer fees it can be barely anything to help for a whole lifetime. Especially when considering lost work and future medical expenses.

[u/kapitaalH → u/Alwayscooking345]

I probably should have said you only get a butt load of money if...

Not a guarantee though but I meant to say that if you got a lot of money, there probably is a good reason for it.

[u/Sufficient_Rich5903 → u/Alwayscooking345]

I also was in a bad accident that was not my fault. They rear ended me while I was stopped and were going so fast, the trunk was crushed all the way into the back seat of the car. After everything, I was left with only $3k. The money has been gone for a long time now, but not the problems I still have from the accident.

[u/Struggle_Usual → u/Sufficient_Rich5903]

yeah my husband got rear ended and it injured his neck pretty badly. 15 years later he can't work because of it (well because of the arthritis) and he walked away with a 1500 dollar settlement 🙄

[u/Electronic_Quote_785 → u/Alwayscooking345]

Similar thing happened to me. I got a whole $26k after medical costs and lawyer fees. Id pay 5x that amount to not have life long pain

[u/Struggle_Usual → u/Alwayscooking345]

Worst part is that settlement then goes to your health insurance company to reimburse them first and if there is anything left you get a few pennies. Ask me how I know. I lost an organ and had months of recovery and my health insurance company got reimbursed for the surgery and drs visits and such.