A new New York law put into place in January 2006 means that when you settle your wrongful death case, you will be entitled to earn interest on your money, while you wait for the Surrogate's Court to finalize your settlement.

In the past, when a wrongful death case was settled, litigants needed to wait for approval from the Surrogate's Court in order to have the Court oversee and supervise how the monies would be distributed to the family members. The problem was that the Surrogate's Court would often take many months to reach a conclusion before rendering a final deciscion that allowed the litigants the approval necessary to obtain their settlement monies. During those months spent waiting for court approval, their settlement money was being held by the insurance companies, and gaining interest for the benefit of the insurance companies.

This has now changed.

When a wrongful death suit is tentatively settled now, your attorney must apply to the TRIAL court for permission to tentatively settle the case. Once the trial court grants their approval, the attorney is able to submit closing papers to the insurance company that will allow your lawyer to obtain your settlement check. From that check, the attorney will be able to immediately (subject to the trial court giving approval) retrieve his expenses that he has documented to the satisfaction of the court, and also be able to obtain his (or her) attorney's fee.

Once that has happened, the case then awaits final approval from the Surrogate's Court to decide how the settlement monies will be distributed. During this hiatus, interest is being generated for the benefit of the litigant, so that when the money is distributed, the interest is also divided according to the formula worked out by the court.