subject: Getting A Structured Settlement From Your Slip And Fall [print this page] A structured settlement is a financial or insurance agreement, including periodic obligations, that a claimant accepts to fix a personal injury tort claim or to exchange a statutory periodic payment contract. The 1970s saw the appearance of structured settlements as a way to prevent lump sum settlements that would be difficult to meet. In regions like America, Canada, England, and Australia, statutory tort laws can include structured settlements as part of a legal arrangement.
There are some common rules to settlements, but the rules and specifications for these practices vary with each nation. When you take part in a structured settlement, you could be awarded advantages and income taxes as well. Structured settlement payments are sometimes known as "periodic payments." A structured settlement incorporated into a trial judgment is referred to as a "periodic payment judgment."
There are both federal and state policies and specific legislation in America related to structured settlements. Federal structured settlement laws consist of sections of the (federal) Internal Revenue Code. On the state level, there are structured settlement laws for settlement security and judgment statute payment law.
Structured settlements furthermore use laws in Medicare and Medicaid. To preserve a claimant's Medicare and Medicaid advantages, structured settlement payments may be included into "Medicare Set Aside Arrangements" "Special Needs Trusts." Structured settlements have been recommended by many of the nation's largest disability rights organizations, including the American Association of People with Disabilities [2] and the National Organization on Disability.
Suze Orman, a financial collaborator, write in April 2009 about the gains of structured settlements; how they can help improve a person's financial safety if properly used, and they help those who receive avoid spending all the lump sum at once, allowing them to extend out their funds for an appropriate amount of time. The way a structured settlement works is thus: When someone gets wounded, that person sues the defendant, or their present insurer, for damages - the claimant can then offer to decline the lawsuit in exchange for a series of periodic payments of dollars that is often less than what they asked for in court, but ample to get him to drop the suit. As a result, the defendant or their insurer is left with the duty to pay the claimant that money for that period of time.
