QUESTION
Personal injury settlement pertaining to Married Couple
Asked on Feb 04th, 2014 on Family Law - Florida
More details to this question:
Been married 25 years raised two kid and have never lived apart. Wife trips over bag of potatoes at 5guys and is getting 25,000 for her etc..She missed two days of work and has been pretty much all healed.Bone bruise not broke with some infection.Anyway i thought we were equal when she say's that's all her money. I'm hurt,surprised etc.. but can she do that?
1 ANSWER
It really depends how the settlement is structured. If it is structured that all of the money is for your wife's pain and suffering and future pain and suffering, then she has a good argument that it is "all hers." However, if the attorney presented her claim and incorporated a claim that you have for loss of consortium as well as lost past or future wages (because your salaries are marital assets) then you may have a claim to some of the money. Of course, if you are not planning on getting divorced (and, after 25 years, hopefully not) and she ends up depositing the money in a joint account (or you purchase something jointly with the funds) then typically you can claim it is a gift and she cannot try to isolate it as a non-marital assets should the marriage go south.
Hopefully, this is just an academic question, and she is really planning to get you some present you always wanted with her new found wealth.
Cindy Vova
Law Office of Cindy S. Vova, P.A.
8551 West Sunrise Blvd., Suite 301
Plantation, FL 33322
954-316-3496
info@vovalaw.com
Answered on Feb 04th, 2014 at 9:08 PM