Lets say your case settles for $50,000 and there is a hospital lien for $30,000. This is the only lien there is. The common fund would be $20,000: $10,000 for the hospitals and $10,000 for the physicians. The hospital that is the lien holder may try to argue that it is entitled to the full common fund because there are no physician liens. Because there are no physician liens, the hospital argues, it is entitled to the physician funds as well.