Mea Culpa: The right way to apply the new SEHP legislation

A fellow pliantiff's lawyer, David Lewis of KELLY & WEST ATTORNEYS in Lillington, NC, has correctly pointed out that the new SEHP legislation uses the language from the NC Medical Lien Statute and that the analysis should probably follow that line of lien reduction.(i.e. I got it wrong)  He's aboslutely correct, I think.  The final result comes out almost the same as my analysis, but I'm embarrassed to say that I knew we included the language of NCGS 44 -50 in the SEHP legislation, but forgot to use that same analysis.  The good news is that SEHP is still WRONG.

David's email correctly points out:

The caluclation should be:

30,000 settlement

10,000 atty fees

250 costs

125,000 SEHP lien

FIRST:  Subtract out atty fees and costs to determine "total damages recovered by the Plan member"(not total amount paid by 3rd party)

30,000

-10,000

-250    

19,750   SUBJECT TO LIEN

SEHP not to exceed 50% of "total damages recovered by the Plan member"

THEREFORE:  SEHP lien is $125,000 > $19,750

LIEN IS REDUCED TO 50% of $19,750 =  $9,875.00

Final Disbursement:

30,000 Settlement

-10,000 Attorney Fees

-250 Costs

-9875.00 FINAL LIEN

$9,875.00 to CLIENT

I think you nailed this analysis, David.

Chris Nichols

www.NicholsTrialLaw.com