Additional Information: My husband was involved in a car accident. We are being sued for more than we have on our insurance policy. Can we protect our Massachusetts home in a personal injury lawsuit?
ATTORNEY ANSWER:
Your home will be protected if you had prepared, filed, and recorded a Homestead Declaration for your real estate. If you have not yet filed a Homestead Declaration, it may not be too late. If you did, this will protect your home from forced sale to satisfy any eventual attachments or judgments. It will not, however, prevent a lien from being placed on your property. It will protect up to $500,000 in equity in your home. It is not regarded as a transfer for purposes of the fraudulent transfer law so that it is perfectly legitimate to do this in the face of a lawsuit. If the plaintiff has already obtained an attachment on your home prior to filing a homestead you are out of luck.
Often time, your insurance company will hire counsel to defend the claim. Frequently, individuals will retain counsel of their own to monitor the case and to defend over and above the insurance policy. Your counsel will make sure insurance counsel does his or her job and will push for settlement within the policy limits.
Massachusetts personal injury lawyer, Attorney Alan Segal is based in Needham, MA and serves the Greater Boston region and all of Massachusetts in all personal injury accident claims and cases, including the cities and towns of Acton Agawam Amherst Andover Arlington Attleboro Barnstable Belmont Beverly Billercia Boston Braintree Bridgewater Brockton Brookline Burlington Cambridge Canton Chelmsford Chelsea Chicopee Danvers Dartmouth Dedham Dracut Easton Everett Fall River Falmouth Fitchburg Framingham Gloucester Haverhill Holyoke Lawrence Leominster Lexington Lowell Lynn Malden Marlborough Medford Melrose Metheun Milford Milton Natick Needham New Bedford Newton North Andover North Attleboro North Reading Norwood Peabody Pittsfield Plymouth Quincy Randolph Revere Salem Saugus Shrewsbury Somerville Springfield Stoughton Taunton Tewksbury Waltham Watertown Wellesley Westfield West Springfield Weymouth Woburn Worcester.
