Good news???

We settled the malpractice case. Yippee. Okay, okay, I know, I should be happy that we're actually getting money, but it's not NEARLY what we had hoped for. We were aiming for at least enough to pay off our credit cards. We'll probably be getting about half that amount, but it's better than nothing, right?

For those of you who don't know, I was in a car accident a little under three years ago. I had to have emergency surgery... The surgery didn't go well. In fact, it went completely wrong. So, fast forward to now... I have a malpractice suit against the doctor. I actually didn't really want to sue him; I'm just not a suing type of person. But then I got pregnant with my daughter and that kind of changed everything. Then it wasn't just Matt and I Matt's paychecks were supporting. There was a baby on the way. So, in an effort to do what I could to let my daughter have the kind of life I want her to have, I sued. I can't work and this is the only way I could think of to get money for us.

So, here we are, 8 days from trial when, suddenly, the doctor changes his mind and offers a settlement. See, at first, he kept refusing and wanted to just go to court. But I guess someone talked some sense into him. Not that much, though, because his offer is a penny below the reporting limit. That way it doesn't go on his record. My lawyer called me with all this two days ago. Matt and I talked it over and decided to make a counter offer....... He turned it down today. So, after talking it over with my lawyer and having him tell me what the defense would be (which, I'll admit, wouldn't sound good for me to a person who doesn't know the whole story), I called Matt and asked him what we should do. We decided to take the measly offer because, after all, if we go to court and lose, the doctor (who's a complete ass) will probably come after us for his lawyer's fees as well as the experts he had to hire. So we'd be MORE in debt. Yes, my lawyer doesn't charge me if we lose, but the other side could file a suit to get me to pay them for dragging them into this. So, since we were doing this for Lorelai and not us, we decided to take what we can DEFINITELY get and not to chance losing AND winding up in more debt.

But, like I said, it's about half of the smallest amount we wanted to settle for, an amount that would have wiped out all of our debt and put a few grand in our pockets. Oh well, at least it's something, right? And if we work it right, and pick what we pay off carefully, we can lower our monthly credit card payments considerably. I shouldn't be so down... It's a good amount. It will make it easier to breathe around here. But I guess I got so caught up in the fantasy of getting at least enough to pay off all of our debt. We had a plan... pay it all off, take about 2 years to save, and move into a house. That just won't be happening now and it's kind of sad. I know it'll happen eventually, but I wanted it to be now so badly. I tried, at least. And I did make it better for Lorelai, in a way, if I think about it. This will make it easier for us financially right now. It may not solve all our problems, but it does help a lot. And it will still help us take a shorter amount of time to pay off our debt and get into a house... It won't all happen as quick as we'd like it to, but it's closer to happening than if we didn't sue or didn't accept the offer, went to court, lost, and was ordered to pay his fees... I have to look at that side of it...

Well, I guess that means that it's time for me to sit down with our bills and figure out what card gets what amount in an effort to be most effective with this money. Yay, fun.