We were reimbursed by my daughters personal injury settlement.

[moonbeam9209]

Hello!!!

My daughter was in a car accident almost two years ago. She is now 17 years old, and finally received a settlement (small considering her injuries), but after the money was put into her guardianship, the lawyer has reimbursed my husband and I just over 5k for items we had expenses for over the past two years. We had paid a few medical bills, lost wages, mileage, etc.

I realize that in Georgia you can exempt a certain amount for personal injury settlements, 10k I believe, but we really didn't get a "personal injury settlement" we were just reimbursed from expenses that arose from this.

We haven't filed yet, but will need to pretty soon since I have a court date in March for Target Visa, and just got served for under 5k that I owe to Capital One.

My question is, is this money considered income or what? How do we handle it

We opened a bank account with about 3k of it, paid car and mortgage payment, reimbursed a few people that we owed money to, etc. Of course we are keeping receipts for everything we spend the money on.

Also, one other question: We took 2k of that money and bought my daughter a macbook, which the guardianship will be reimbursing us for in a couple of weeks. It was just about timing. She needed it right away to do some online courses, since she needs extra credits to graduate. Anyhow, it IS her computer, but will we need to list it as one of our assets? I had often wondered how they view items such as your kids ipods, Xbox's, etc. since these are items that were gifts they bought themselves with Christmas money.

Thanks!!

[keepmine]

reimbursed a few people that we owed money to, etc.

This could be a problem if you file within 90 days of making those payments. You may well have a preference issue and the trustee can sue them to recover the money.

[moonbeam9209]

how can i stretch it out for the ninety days before filing? The Target issue started last august when they served me. I answered the summons, but apparently they weren't notified. duh. guess they never checked, anyways around Christmas they asked first for an extension of the court date(Jan 13th), recovery period wasn't through they said, then after that they requested a summary judgement. The judge continued the court date until March 17th, and I was only served from Capital one the other day. Do I actually have to explain every penny that I spend? I plan on using the tax refund for things that we need, such as clothing for my kids, tires, brakes, things for the house, etc.

Do I have to differentiate the money that we spend from our paychecks and that of our tax refund? This is really confusing to me.

[lrprn]

moonbeam, are you filing with a lawyer? This is a very unusual situation, and you would greatly benefit from sound legal advice about how this situation is going to mix with filing bankruptcy, especially if it's going to be soon.

Please stop spending the settlement money for anything other than directly for your daughter or her medical care and bills until you find out what might complicate your bankruptcy unnecessarily.

[moonbeam9209]

I plan on consulting with a lawyer next week, but as far as spending her settlement money, I am not spending any of "her" money. That is in a guardianship account until she is 18 in July. There was a settlement from the drunk guys insurance company of 50k, and money was distributed to lawyers, doctors, etc. and we received a reimbursement of expenses from the 50k along with everyone else. THEN the balance went into her guardianship account, which cannot be touched without the judges approval.

The net in the guardianship account has nothing at all to do with me, we actually had to use a court appointed guardian because my credit had gone down the tubes and I couldn't get a bond.

I just don't know if the 5k that we were given is really considered "income"?

I know I will need a lawyer, but I really appreciate all of the input from here, and am just trying to get my ducks in a row.

Thanks!