Your case settled. How long until you get your settlement check?

Your case has settled, and the money hasn't reached you yet. Three things stand between the agreement and your bank account: the insurer's payment to your attorney, the check clearing your attorney's trust account, and the fee, costs and liens paid out of the settlement before your share. Each runs on its own rules, and some of them come with a clock. If the wait is the problem, post-settlement funding can advance part of your share now. Once your attorney's office confirms the settlement, decisions typically go out the same business day, and funds usually arrive within 24 to 48 hours of signing.

Once you agree to settle, how long does the insurer have to pay?

In New York and Florida, the law sets a deadline. In Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona, the rules we read set none for an injury settlement, so the settlement agreement sets the timing. Our post-settlement guide walks through each rule. What matters here is what happens when a deadline passes:

• New York. Once a lawsuit has settled, the defendant has 21 days from receiving your signed release and the stipulation ending the case; a city or other public body not covered by the state gets 90 days, though its insurer still gets 21. If the defendant misses the deadline, you can enter a judgment for the settlement amount, plus costs and interest from the date the release was sent, without further notice (CPLR 5003-a).
• Florida. Once you and the insurer agree in writing, the insurer has 20 days to pay. A late payment carries interest at 12 percent a year; if payment depends on a signed release, the interest starts once the release is sent (Fla. Stat. 627.4265).

Either way, the signed release is what starts the payment moving, so getting it signed and back to your attorney quickly is the first thing you can do to speed up the payout.

Does the check go to you or to your attorney?

To your attorney, and that protects you. The defendant or its insurer pays your attorney, and the money goes into the firm's trust account, a separate account that keeps your money apart from the firm's own (Texas Rule 1.15(a), for example). Before anything is paid out, the deposit has to clear the bank. Then your share is paid to you from the trust account, once the fee, the case costs and any liens are accounted for.

What gets paid first out of a settlement?

Your attorney's fee, the case costs, the liens and any funding already on the case are paid from the settlement before your share is released. The page that shows all of it is the closing statement.

The rules require it in writing. In Texas and Pennsylvania, at the end of a contingency case your attorney gives you a written statement showing the outcome, what is paid to you and how that amount was worked out (Tex. Rule 1.04(d); Pa. Rule 1.5(c)). In Ohio, you and your attorney both sign the closing statement, and you receive it no later than when the attorney is paid (Ohio Rule 1.5(c)(2)).

A closing statement typically reads top to bottom like this:

1. The gross settlement. The full amount the defendant or its insurer paid.
2. The attorney's fee. The percentage in your fee agreement. In Texas, that agreement also has to say whether case expenses come off before or after the fee is figured, which changes your share (Rule 1.04(d)).
3. Case costs. Filing fees, records, experts and similar expenses the firm paid along the way.
4. Liens. Medicare, Medicaid, a health plan, a hospital or another provider with a legal claim to part of the money. Medicaid can reach only the part of a settlement that pays for medical care, past or future (Ahlborn; Gallardo).
5. Funding payoff. If there is funding on the case, the amount in the funding company's payoff letter.
6. Your share. What's left, paid to you.

Can you be paid the undisputed part while a lien is worked out?

Yes. When someone claims part of the money, that amount stays in the trust account until the claim is resolved, and the rest can be paid out to you. The rules in California, Florida and Texas provide for exactly that (Cal. Rule 1.15; Fla. Bar Rule 5-1.1(f); Tex. Rule 1.15(c)).

Arizona and South Carolina give attorneys a tool for a claim that stalls. Your attorney can send notice to whoever is claiming part of the money, and if no action is filed within 90 days, your attorney can pay you with your informed consent, confirmed in writing (Ariz. ER 1.15(f); S.C. Rule 1.15(e)(2)).

If one lien is taking longer than the rest, your attorney can tell you whether the part nobody disputes can go out now.

Can Medicare's final amount be locked in at settlement?

Yes. Medicare's rules give your attorney a way to fix the final number at the time of settlement instead of waiting for a demand letter afterward (42 CFR 411.39):

• Once Medicare's contractor is told a settlement is pending, it gathers the payments it ties to your case within 65 days or less and posts them on its online portal.
• Up to 120 days before the expected settlement date, your attorney can tell Medicare, once, that the settlement is coming.
• After that notice, a dispute over a charge unrelated to your injury is resolved within 11 business days.
• A payment summary downloaded within 3 days of the settlement date is Medicare's final conditional payment amount.
• Your attorney then has 30 days after the settlement to send the settlement details through the portal, or that final amount is void.

Medicare then reduces what it takes back by its share of the attorney fees and costs of getting the settlement (42 CFR 411.37) and issues the final demand, and it must be repaid within 60 days of the settlement being received (42 CFR 411.24(h)). Cases over toxic exposure, a drug or an implanted device need one extra notice step. The standard route, without the portal, is in the Medicare section of our post-settlement guide.

Can a hospital lien hold up your check?

Yes, in states that give hospitals a lien by statute. The lien attaches to your claim and the settlement, so the amount the hospital claims stays in the trust account until it's paid or resolved. The rules differ by state:

• Texas. A hospital has a lien if you were admitted within 72 hours of the accident. It can never be more than the charges for your first 100 days in the hospital or half of what you recover, whichever is less (Tex. Prop. Code 55.002, 55.004).
• New York. A charitable or public hospital has a lien for its reasonable charges, but it isn't effective unless the hospital mailed written notice to the party responsible before the settlement was paid (Lien Law 189).
• Arizona. A licensed hospital or other provider has a lien for its customary charges on your claim against the party at fault, but not on your own health insurance, medical payments coverage, or uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (A.R.S. 33-931).

This is where your attorney's work pays off. Checking each claim against these caps and notice rules, and pushing back on the ones that don't hold up, puts more of the settlement in your hands.

If you already have funding on the case, when is it paid back?

At disbursement, from the same settlement. The funding company sends a payoff letter, your attorney pays it through the trust account along with the other items on the closing statement, and you receive what's left. The payoff depends on when the case pays out, set by time period in your agreement, not on how large the settlement is. Funding is non-recourse, so repayment comes only from the settlement.

Need more while you wait? Once a case has settled, we also review cases another company funded while they were pending. The first funder's payoff comes out of the same disbursement, and we base the amount on what's left.

Can you get money while you wait for the settlement to pay out?

Yes. Post-settlement funding advances part of your share now, against a case that's already won, and it's repaid from the settlement through your attorney's trust account. What we need comes from your attorney's office: the signed release or settlement agreement, the closing statement or your attorney's estimate of it, the lien figures, and the payoff letter for any funding already on the case.

Settled cases are priced from 3% per month, simple, charged in periods of three months or more, and capped. Caps start at 2x your agreement's total. Our cost page shows how the payoff works by period.

Funding requires an attorney representing you on a full contingency fee basis who signs an acknowledgment of the funding agreement. Funding is provided by Diamondback Funding or one of its funding partners. Your agreement identifies the funding company and states your exact repayment terms before you sign.

Common questions

Where this leaves things

A settled case is won, but the money still has to travel: the insurer's payment, the bank, the fee, the liens and the paperwork each take their turn, and the rules above set how long several of them can take. Your attorney is working each of those steps for you, and the questions above help you see where yours stands.

If the check is still on its way, apply for post-settlement funding and we'll review your case with your attorney's office.

This guide reflects the law as of October 27, 2026. Payment rules, professional conduct rules and lien statutes change; Diamondback Funding re-verifies statutory citations quarterly. It is general information, not legal advice: your attorney is the authority on how these rules apply to your case.