I am on, or have applied for Social Security Disability. Won’t getting a sum of money in a Workers’ compensation Settlement take away my Social Security?

No, but it will likely reduce it by some amount. In the compromise settlement agreement, we will create an “offset” paragraph which will set forth the amount by which your Social Security check will be reduced due to the settlement.

The paragraph will basically state what sum of money you are to receive in settlement, AFTER attorneys’ fees and AFTER expenses, and/or any set-aside arrangements for Medicare. Then, we look at your age and life expectancy, as set forth by the North Carolina Statutes, and figure out how many weeks that is. For instance, if you have a life expectancy of 20 years, that is 1,040 weeks. If your lump sum settlement, after attorneys’ fees and expenses, etc. is $100,000, we divide that amount by those weeks. Therefore, we determine that your social security check would be reduced by $96.15 per week.