An Opinion on Structured Settlements

laims on personal injuries and liabilities was usually given as a large one time money in the past and this leaves the individual to decide how and what he is going to do with the money and how he is going to use it over the long period of time. So it is necessary for a person to work out on how to distribute the money for the overall period of time to handle his medical expenses and other expenses caused by injuries.

If you have heard of a Structured Settlement payment agreement then these are structured programs that allow you to pay a sum of money for a certain period of time on a continuous basis. The amount of money that has to be paid is predetermined and an agreement is made between the parties. This is very helpful to the person as he no longer has to take the entire burden of paying out more money every time he encounters a personal injury. This can be compared with that of the mortgage paid on a home but the main difference is that you are the one who is getting paid this time.

If this sounds complex then it can be explained in a relatively simpler manner by explaining individual words of this complex phrase. By the term "structure", we get to know that the payments are made regularly based on a schedule which is predetermined. "Settlement" means that the party has to settle the money which he has agreed to and the "payment" refers to the payment of money which is made to the victim and "plan" explains how it going to be paid.

These settlements are mostly decided by private parties and do not involve courts in this procedure. This is always better for the one who is accused for the harm and also the injured victim is also compensated. At the same time, the victim also has the option of taking the one defending to court in case they do not arrive at a solution or a settlement plan. In cases of court procedure, these settlement plans come as a court order and failing on this agreement would leave the person greater consequences to face as it would be against the law. This is main reason why the one affected always prefers to settle in court even if the defendant offers an attractive plan. This makes the defendant follow things compulsorily which also happens in the case of private structured settlements. The main difference is that it is highly enforced in the case of a court settlement.

The two parties involved must be in knowledge of the structure of the payment plan and this structure is mostly made in the favor the defendant. These payments are not charged for tax and they are tax free for the defendant and it can help him prevent loss of benefits which is not available in the case of large amount. Everything has to be properly understood and negotiated before making a settlement plan.