Florida Courts Will Set Off Judgments Against Related Settlements – Florida Beneficiaries Getting Slighted?

In Florida there is a notion that the goal of courts is to make an injured party whole, and usually nothing more- a rare exception is punitive damages. If a Court feels that for some reason a party is double dipping then they can set-off an award by the other contributions. Is that fair? If you got your day in court and won, would you want your award reduced based on other settlements?

• In law, a source of money (for the damages) that is different than the judgment is often referred to as collateral sources and they are as a basic rule, banned from being introduced as evidence in your Palm Beach Probate dispute. 
• The downside to that they are not mentioned is that after you get your jury award the judge is going to set it off based on those collateral sources.
• Would you prefer the jury know about them and possibly slight your award or would you prefer the judge take the helm as they do currently?

Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals says that bank was entitled to set off in the case ofCornerstone SMR Inc., v. Bank of America N.A., filed on April 8, 2015, No. 4D13-2064.

• Cornerstone was a small business that had been taken advantage of by the book keeper because she started another company opened an account and would just go cut checks walk them to the defendant bank and deposit funds.
• She was eventually sued as was her fake company but various of the causes of action were barred by the statute of limitations because it took to long to discover thetortious conduct. Delray Beach Litigators know that time is of the essence.
• The jury returned a verdict in a separate action against the bank and then came the question of whether a set off should apply considering that the plaintiffs would not be made whole in the first place. What do you think?

So if you find out that a group of corporate trustees in Boynton Beach mismanaged your trust, what can you do to avoid settlement set offs reducing the compensation when you are not made whole? Palm Beach Litigators know how to plan multi defendant litigation to avoid these issues or curb them to the best of their ability.