You know, a structured settlement is you don’t come join me I want to 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 their 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 10 years it can be over the course of 20 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 and your kids trust or you can’t do it because it’s tied up and you cannot touch it for the next 10 years
Those are all important factors to consider when deciding what to do when you win either trial and you get an award or you settle a 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’s 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 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 going to 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
