The problem there is that most people get their information about insurance from insurance advertisers. Advertisers sometimes create entire false worlds to sell you your product. (Also that lawyer may have taken you for a ride/been the least competent lawyer I've ever heard of, unless you've left out part of the story.)

In actuality, insurance is categorically not a system that rewards you for bad things happening. There's no way that's profitable---your premiums would bankrupt everyone, immediately---and it's actually illegal.

It's also not a bank. You pay for a service, and that service is a safety net. If your period passes and you didn't have a claim, you still had the safety net the whole time. The net is the product. You constantly use it while your policy is in effect, and you don't pay extra to stash away the money for future use.

All insurance is is a system to mitigate loss based on the principle that we don't all have losses at once. It's meant to indemnify only, or return to a pre-loss standing or closest possible equivalent. In the case of a car accident under responsibly purchased insurance, it's supposed to cover medical expenses and damage to property, which it sounds like your stepdad's did.

The reason why I question your lawyer is because that lawyer going to court instead of your insurance company is pretty much number one on the list of things a lawyer should know not to do. Part of your contract is that your insurance company is responsible for what's called subrogation.

That means they have the responsibility to represent you in court when they think it's to retrieve the cost of your payout from someone else (and also to defend you if someone tries to do the same to you, assuming you haven't violated your contract by intentionally causing harm, e.g. murderers). They retrieve the money they paid out to the hospital, which zeros their ledger so that premiums don't have to go up to compensate.*

Also, "winnings?" I don't like to read into one word too much, so I understand it could be way off base. But thinking of it in those terms is