subject: What Is A Structural Personal Injury Settlement? [print this page] When a personal injury case has been decided in favor of the claimant the plaintiff will be entitled to receive an award - a personal injury settlement - that is based on the damages. If you have been the plaintiff in a personal injury case and the case was decided in your favor, you could receive either a lump sum payment or a structural settlement.
If you receive a structural settlement you will receive a series of payments over time rather than being paid for the entire amount of the settlement all at once. Structural payments are like other types of payments that people make such as house payments or automobile payments. In this instance, however, the party that was found to be liable for your accident will make regular payments to you, the injured party, until the entire amount has been paid out.
The amount of time allocated for structural settlements can vary. Depending on the total amount awarded and the amount of the payments, the payout terms can be longer or shorter. For the most part these types of payments are made on a monthly basis and they are paid out over the course of years rather than months. If you have received a very large settlement it could even take decades for the defendant to pay you the entire amount.
Presumably structured settlements benefit the plaintiff as well as the defendant. Injured parties are assured that they will receive income for a finite amount of time. So, for at least that period, the victim will know that he or she will have a relatively steady amount of money coming in. Since they may not have a very accurate prognosis as to how long the recovery period will actually be, structure settlements could help them to cover whatever other issues may arise that were caused by the injury.
The defendant - the person who is making the payments - will benefit in that he or she may be able to receive tax deductions based on the payout structure. Hence, their taxes could be reduced over the term of the payouts.
If your injury is serious enough to warrant a settlement it would probably be in your best interest to hire a personal injury attorney. Experienced personal injury lawyers have a history of winning cases for the people they represent. They are intimately familiar with the "fine print" of personal injury law and often know how to get their clients the biggest settlement possible.
When a personal injury is serious the victim may be entitled to receive personal injury settlement that could range from five figures to seven figures or more.
by: Wendy Moyer
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