AZ Rejects Proposed Change to Settlements in a Personal Injury Claim for a Minor

By Kent Berk on May 13th, 2014 in BLOG, LIQUIDATED DAMAGES, LITIGATION, personal injury

The goal of any personal injury claim is recovering damages—the money spent on medical bills, lost wages,  as well as for pain, suffering and emotional distress—for an injured person. When that person is a minor, however, the settlement process can be more burdensome for everyone involved than it is for adults.

Proposed bill, HB 2327, that initially sought to change the procedure for the settlement of claims of a minor if the net amount of the settlement was $10,000 or less, was rewritten when presented to the Governor such that it no longer included the proposed change in procedure for the settlement of such claims for minors and thus did not become law in Arizona. 

Apparently, there were a number of unresolved issues and safeguards with the proposed bill, including how certain minors would be able to settle their cases without any court or parental involvement and who would bring any potential conflict of interest to the attention of the court if certain minors did not understand or appreciate that a conflict existed and a parent selfishly did not bring the issue to the court’s attention.  It will be interesting to see if a similar proposed bill resurfaces.

If your child has been injured because of another person’s negligence or harmful actions, please call an experienced Scottsdale personal injury attorney at Berk Law Group, P.C. with your questions.