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Do you know what a structured settlement is? You don’t? Come join me, I wanna tell you
what a structured settlement is. Hi, I’m Gerry Oginski, I’m a New York medical malpractice
and personal injury trial attorney practicing law here in the state of New York. A structured
settlement allows you to take a lump sum of money and then have it paid out over a period
of time. Now why would you even consider that? One of the reasons why you would consider
that in a case involving negligence, in a case involving medical malpractice or possibly
wrongful death is a number of reasons. Most people are not financially savvy enough to
know what to do with a lump sum of money that they get as compensation in a lawsuit. All
of a sudden now they have a huge amount of money and they don’t know what to do. Do
they invest it? Do they put it in the bank? Do they spend it? What do they do with it?
The reality is, just like with lottery winners, people who experience a huge amount of money
all at one time, over the course of time have a tendency to lose that money in a very short
period of time. So one of the options that we as attorneys are obligated to tell you
about is something called a structured settlement. And that basically means that you can take
as much or as little money as you want out to do whatever you wish with. Then you can
then have that money, the remaining amount, paid out over the course of time. It can be
over the course of ten years, it can over the course of twenty years or the course of
your lifetime. And there’s a real benefit to doing that. You will get tax benefits by
paying out the money over time. You will get other benefits in that you will not have easy
access to all the money at one particular time. So when your friends or relatives or
somebody comes to you and says hey, could you lend me this money? Obviously the answer
is no because it’s all tied up in your kids trust. Or you can’t do it because it’s
tied up and you cannot touch it for the next ten years. Those are all important factors
to consider when deciding what to do when you win either at trial and you get an award
or you settle the case and now you’re faced with a lump sum of money. You know the whole
idea of compensation is to repay a debt that‘s owed. Somebody has caused you harm. Somebody
has caused you injury. And the only true way that we can repay somebody in today’s society
is financially with monetary compensation. So a lot of people, the defense attorneys
especially, who turn around and say you know this is not a lottery. Well of course it’s
not. We’re asking only for full and fair compensation at the time of trial. That’s
what we’re looking for when we seek to compensate you. And for those people who do receive compensation,
the question becomes what are you going to do with it? How are you gonna rebuild your
lives? What are you going to do to make yourself whole again? The money can never put you back
together but it’s designed to compensate you so that your life is a little bit easier.
And that’s the key. Understanding what to do with it. When you’re considering what
to do with that compensation, you should always be thinking about structured settlements.
It may help you greatly and is certainly going to help your ability to save that money over
the course of your lifetime. So why do I tell you this? I tell you this again to give you
an insight and an understanding into how the lawsuit process works here in the state of
New York. And if you have questions, and I’m sure you’re watching this you do have questions
or concerns. What I encourage you to do is pick up the phone and call me. I do this every
single day, I answer legal questions just like yours. You can reach me at 516-487-8207
or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I’m Gerry Oginski here in New York. Thanks for watching.