Oftentimes a significant personal injury case resolves by way of settlement - and depending on a number of factors, the Plaintiff can have the option of accepting the insurance company's offer of settlement proceeds through a "structure" that provides for agreed-to allocations of those settlement benefits over designated periods of time. Inherent in the structured settlement agreement are the limitations and prohibitions against the Plaintiff receiving any assets sooner than the agreed-to structured time payment periods.
It is this writer's considered opinion that with the right legal counsel, certain limitations and prohibitions are abundantly in the best interests of the recipient of those settlement funds and should not have been agreed to from the onset unless fully understood by the Plaintiff of a structured settlement for serious Florida personal injuries.
Unfortunately, there is a sub-industry of opportunistic entrepreneurs who selfishly try and often succeed at tempting and misleading the beneficiaries of these structured settlements into obtaining a "cash-out" of their proceeds sooner than as designated in the structure agreement - prying upon the recipient's vulnerabilities. These opportunistic structure buyout companies attempt to obtain these structures at a fraction of what the Florida personal injury victim is otherwise entitled to receive, the end result being typically disaster for the victim who falls prey to these predator companies.
Keep in mind that unprotected, the average recipient of rightful personal injury settlement funds tends to "go-through" their settlement monies within less than 18 months from the time of settlement - and frankly these statistic is true whether they received thousands or millions of dollars. Thereafter, they usually lack the ability to properly care for their financial and economic needs and cover their losses in the future. That is the purpose of the structured settlement to assure monies will be there in the future when medical and financial needs arise and that is just the loss that these companies are further inflicting upon their victims.
