How do you collect on a wrongful death damages award?

On behalf of Aiken and Aiken P.C. Personal Injury Attorneys posted in Wrongful Death, on Friday, August 14, 2015

Anyone who has gone from school to the job market learns that there is a difference between reading about something or studying it in an academic environment and actually putting it into practice. This is true as well in the context of personal injury litigation.Take, for example, the concept of damages. You can read blog posts about how, if you are injured as the result of the wrongful act of another, you can take legal action against that person and if you succeed in your claim you can receive compensation for those injuries in the form of either a settlement amount or a damages award. All good in theory. But how do you actually go about collecting the amounts that you are owed? That is something that a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney must be familiar with in more than just a hypothetical sense. A recovery is only as good as its convertibility from figures on a piece of paper into actual monetary proceeds. And sometimes it requires going through the court after the judgment has been rendered to make that conversion into a reality.This is what has happened recently in the Massachusetts civil law case against Aaron Hernandez, the former professional football player who was convicted for killing another man. The relatives of the homicide victim have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hernandez, and have sought to collect against his real and personal property. To do so, it was necessary to secure judicial approval to have the home and a vehicle owned by Hernandez sold, which the court has just authorized.Plaintiff’s personal injury attorneys spend considerable time through law school and thereafter studying and analyzing tort law, but there is no substitute for practical experience when it comes to securing not only a favorable judgment or settlement, but also identifying and securing the compensation that his or her clients deserve.Source: FOX News, “Judge approves sale of $1.3M home, Hummer of ex-Patriot Hernandez in wrongful death lawsuit,” August 13, 2015