‘What I Did With My Personal-Injury Settlement’

Massive personal-injury payouts are the stuff of legend. Everybody has heard of somebody who paid for a nice house, a comfortable retirement, or their grandkids’ college education with a multimillion-dollar settlement from a car crash — or a dog bite, or a slip-and-fall, or a coffee burn. Admit it: Who hasn’t wondered if a very mild, recoverable injury could be worth a resulting windfall?

It’s true that personal-injury settlements can be life-changing — or at least improve your financial situation significantly. But at what cost? How do you put a dollar amount on the value of your physical body? And if you get that money, what do you do with it?

About 95 percent of personal-injury cases are settled out of court (meaning they don’t go to trial), so payments are usually shrouded by non-disclosure agreements. But some data puts the average settlement at around $55,000, with the median closer to $25,000 — nothing to sneeze at, but not exactly get-rich-quick money either.

Here, three recipients of personal-injury settlements explain what happened and how the funds have affected their lives.

Anna, 23, from Chicago, Illinois
Amount: About $22,000

I’ve been smoking since I was 16, both cigarettes and vapes. And a few years ago, when I was in college, I saw an ad for a personal-injury lawsuit concerning vape products. I think it was on Instagram, but I’m not sure. I was just in class, bored and scrolling on my phone. The ad was asking about whether certain vape products had been advertised to me when I was a minor, which they had. I decided to reply to it.

The forms I had to fill out were very specific. I had to scroll back through the past five years of photos and text messages on my phone, trying to put together a timeline. After I filled everything out, someone called me on the phone to confirm some details and ask more questions about the health effects of vaping at such a young age. I’ve never been hospitalized, but I definitely have symptoms of nicotine addiction. Shortness of breath, headaches, heart palpitations. If I run out of cigarettes or my vape dies, I panic. Whenever I do any physical exercise, it’s much harder for me than my friends. And of course I’ve tried quitting, but I started at such a young age that it’s really, really difficult.

After that phone call, I kind of forgot about the whole thing until they emailed me months later to ask for my e-signature on a couple more forms. I did that, but I still didn’t think I would hear back. And then one day out of the blue, I received an email that was like, “Your check is ready.” The first payment was for about $22,000, and I might be getting more.

At first, I thought it was a scam. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t tell anyone about it because I didn’t think it was real. I looked it up and found a couple other people on Reddit who had been part of the same lawsuit. Some of them were getting closer to $1 million. I got less because I didn’t have concrete receipts from when I purchased the products, and also because I never went to the hospital for my symptoms.

I received a paper check in the mail. When I had it in my hands, I was shaking. And then I held onto it for a couple of days. I was a little scared to deposit it. In the back of my mind I was like, Is this going to screw me over? Could it still somehow be a scam? Finally, I put on a nice outfit and I walked 15 minutes to the bank. I was nervous and prepared to answer a bunch of questions. But no one at the bank said anything. They just smiled and put it in my account.

It’s a life-changing amount. I got the check right after I graduated from college, and I was extremely anxious about my employment prospects. All I had was a little bit of savings from my campus job, but I couldn’t keep doing that after I graduated. I was an art major and I figured I would have to work retail, or at Starbucks. I had also just found out that I had been accepted to an art residency, which provides studio space and a solo show, but it was unpaid. So I was trying to figure out how I was going to support myself while working on my first solo show, and this check just came out of nowhere. Now I’m not working. I’m in the art studio five or six days a week, doing something I truly love.

I’m going to live off of this money for as long as I can. I’m not really sure what I’ll do after. Hopefully my solo show will open some doors or present some opportunities. I’ve been living very, very frugally, and I think it’s possible that I could get by until the end of the year. I made a budget for myself, and if I keep sticking to it carefully, then I should be okay. I’ve still got about $15,000 left, including the very minor savings I had beforehand. I’ve been living off it since February.

The letter I received with the check said that I’m not supposed to mention where the money is from or how much I got. So I don’t tell anyone. When I meet new people and they ask me what I do, it feels a bit weird to say that I don’t work, because I don’t want them to think I have rich parents paying for everything. So I say that I’m an artist and that I won the lottery. I tell them it’s from a little scratch-off. A lot of times they don’t believe me, but I am not going to risk it by saying more. I told my closest, closest friends that I got a big settlement. They still don’t know who it’s from or how much.

This experience has taught me how much someone can accomplish if they’re not worried about daily expenses, rent, food, water, all that. I’ve been creating so much art that I could never have done otherwise.

That said, this money seems a lot to me right now, but I know in the long run it’s going to seem like nothing. And it’s still not worth it. I have family members who have passed away from lung cancer. I’m so dependent on nicotine, and this amount isn’t enough for how much it has affected my life and will probably continue to do so.

Peter, mid-60s, in Virginia
Amount: Several million

When I received my settlement, my lawyer told me that there was one rule I couldn’t break: I couldn’t tell anybody the amount. He said, “If anyone asks you, you can tell them it was seven figures and the first number was crooked.” I can also say that I’m still getting monthly payments, and I’ll be getting a final check for $500,000 in 2026.

I spent decades working in the hospitality industry. I built my own company and I traveled a lot for work. One day I had to attend a meeting in New York City, and I brought my wife with me. The first night we were there, we went out to dinner. We were leaving the restaurant and there was a guy with a pedi-cab who asked if we wanted a ride. And it was a nice night in June and we figured, why not?

On the way back to our hotel, we were hit by an 18-wheeler on Columbus Circle. My wife was okay, but I was on the side of the pedi-cab that the truck hit and I took the brunt of it. I had multiple fractures in my hip, pelvis, and pubic bone, and I had a lot of nerve damage. I was rushed to the hospital, where they took X-rays, and then they transferred me to another hospital to see a special surgeon. I spent 14 nights there. I’ve got eight screws and a titanium chain that goes from my pelvis over to my pubic bone.

While I was at the hospital, I knew we should talk to a good New York City lawyer about what happened. I got in touch with an acquaintance who I figured might know someone, and he recommended Harry Rothenberg. So I put a call into Harry from the hospital, and the next day he walked into my hospital room and we talked. I liked that he didn’t promise any numbers; he seemed like a straight shooter. He told me that we had a very good case, but it would take a while — these things don’t wrap up in a couple of months. And he was right. I didn’t receive the settlement until seven years after the accident.

In the meantime, I went back to work, but it was difficult. I was used to traveling multiple times a week, going to different cities and touring hotels. But after the accident, it was really painful for me to walk. I took my first trip about three months later, and by the time I got to my hotel room, I almost broke down because I was in so much pain. I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I hung onto the company for a few more years, but then I closed it down after the settlement came through. I had some savings, but the settlement makes us much, much, much more comfortable.

I was 58 when I technically retired. But if not for the accident, I’d still be running the business. I loved my job so much, and I was so proud of our reputation. It took a while for me to adjust to not working — it was sort of a shock to the system.

I will say that having the money is nice. I have most of it invested in conservative funds at Vanguard, and I’m really anal about going over all my finances every morning. I end every year with more money than I had at the beginning. And we live very comfortably — we have a house on several acres, and a rental unit in a nearby city, so our monthly expenses are about $8,000. I haven’t really splurged on anything. A few years after I received the first check, I went out and paid cash for a new car, an Audi. We are debt-free. But we don’t travel much because it’s difficult for me. I can’t remember the last time I was on an airplane, and I used to fly two or three times a week. We are planning to go on a cruise in Europe later this year, though, which won’t involve too much walking.

I have two daughters who have children of their own. And it’s nice to know I’m going to leave them a nice inheritance. I have absolutely no money worries, and it’s amazing not to have that pressure. But other than that, the only thing I have planned is to remain comfortable the rest of my life, enjoy it with my wife and make sure she’s comfortable too, and to take care of our family.

My close friends are aware that I’ve received a settlement, and a number of them were initially bugging me about it, like, “How much?” But I just told them I wasn’t allowed to say, and they eventually understood. I don’t sense any resentment or jealousy or anything like that. It’s a lot of money, but I also still have considerable nerve pain going down my left leg, and I think that’s just the way it’s going to be. If I could turn the clocks back, I still would never have gotten in that pedi-cab.

Anthony, mid-50s, from Queens, NY
Amount: $42,944

In January 2021, I was in Buffalo, New York, visiting my son. It was icy and I was going up a few steps to an office building when I slipped. I grabbed onto the railing, but my boots just did a happy feet — I completely lost my balance. I landed on my left shoulder and tore it. I had to get surgery to fix a bunch of muscles and tendons.

I’ve done a lot of different types of work, but at the time, I was in transportation — I was doing Uber, Lyft, and even some Amazon delivery. But after my shoulder got hurt and I was recovering from surgery, I couldn’t work for a while. As soon as I could, I got some new jobs that didn’t involve me using my shoulder or lifting anything. I worked at a car-rental office, and I worked for the U.S. Census. Even still, I fell behind on my mortgage for six months, and fell behind on my credit cards too.

Through my son, I met a woman who worked for Cellino, a law firm that manages these types of personal-injury cases. So I took this case there, and worked with an attorney named Greg. He always picked up my calls and dealt with things quickly, which I appreciated — sometimes you give these cases to a lawyer and they take years. Insurance companies really try to lowball you — they don’t like to pay out, and it drags on and on. Within a year of the accident, I got a settlement check for $42,944. Which is about what I was expecting. You see these personal-injury ads on TV with people getting $1 million or $2 million for a slip-and-fall, but most people don’t get anything close to that. I just wanted to get back on my feet, and to move on.

As soon as I got the money, I put it toward my mortgage and my other bills. Unfortunately, I’m still behind on my credit card. It’s very difficult to get caught up, especially when interest and late fees are accumulating. I can’t even apply for a consolidation loan because my credit is bad. My credit score used to be in the 700s and now it’s in the 500s because I was missing payments.

People think that because you get a settlement, you’re a millionaire. Or because you’re pursuing a personal-injury case, you’re after a bunch of money. That’s not true. These settlements, most of them don’t make you rich or even make you whole. They’re just there to help you try to recover. And that’s all I want. I’m at peace with it, and I’m not going to let this get me down. I’m in good physical health otherwise — I don’t have any other issues. I feel confident that I can deal with this phase and whatever comes next.

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