Articles Posted in Settlements

Being a New York personal injury lawyer has its perks! A client took me out to dinner the other night. It was a fine meal at a great Geneva New York restaurant, Port’s Café. The restaurant is only about a mile and a half from where my client’s tragedy happened 3 summers ago — his wife was hit and killed by a tractor trailer as she crossed routes 5 and 20 on foot, in a crosswalk, in the City of Geneva.

The dinner was a kind of celebration. We had settled his Geneva New York wrongful death case after almost three years of intense litigation, which included the filing of two lawsuits, and the taking of many depositions. And although no amount of money could ever replace the loving wife he lost, he had finally found peace. He felt that at least a measure of justice had been done. We had made them pay! To him, the money meant they had finally accepted responsibility for the accident after years of denial.

Because the wrongful death settlement was for a substantial sum of money, and my client does not need the money at this time (he has a good job and no children to support), I suggested he should consider a “structured settlement“. A “structured settlement” is an insurance or financial agreement in which the plaintiff does not take the entire settlement from the insurance carrier in “a lump sum payment” right away, but instead forgoes immediate payment of at least some of the money, which he will receive later in “periodic payments” (usually monthly). A structured settlement is usually created through the purchase of an “annuity“, which guaranties future periodic payments at a fixed amount over a fixed period of time, with interest added in so that you end up with more money.

Take two clients with the same injury, say a cervical disk herniation. They are both in pain day and night. They can’t sleep. They have a hard time doing what they used to do during the day. They both try nerve block injections but get only limited, temporary relief. They both get neck fusion surgery and now have limited rotation of the neck, but still experience pain every day. There is only one difference between the two: Client A complains bitterly to his doctor about the pain and convinces his doctor to take him out of work. Client B sucks it up and tells his doctor he really wants a normal life, and wants to try to keep working. Who has a better personal injury case, client A or client B?

A few (fortunately, very few) of my Central New York personal injury clients believe it is client A because he has “proved” how much he is suffering by having his doctor take him out of work, and by filling up his medical file with complaints of pain. But actually client B may have a better case. In any event, I would much rather represent client B. Why?

Juries hate whiners. In fact, everyone does. Juries often assume they are milking the system, exaggerating their injuries to bring in a big verdict at trial. Conversely, juries, and people generally, love the fighter, the survivor, the guy who doesn’t give up. When such people testify in their own personal injury trial, they don’t give the impression that they are in it for the money. They have done everything they can to try to overcome their limitations, and are now just seeking fair compensation for what they have been unable to overcome. And juries like them and reward them for their I-can-lick-this-thing attitude.

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