Personal Injury Settlements: Understanding Your Options
If you have sustained injuries in an accident, you may have questions about the steps you must take to improve your situation. You may be wondering how to explain your injuries to your insurance provider or how much compensation you could get. But, if you have decided to settle your case, you may want to know how your personal injury settlement will be paid out. Portland personal injury attorneys are willing to answer any questions you may have and can explain to your how personal injury settlements are paid out:
Injury Settlement Structures
Personal injury compensation may be paid out as a single lump sum or as multiple payments that the recipient gets periodically. No matter the kind of payout, both options are tax-free. Structured payment or multiple payments can be customized to meet the needs of the recipient. However, once you reach an agreement with the other party, the terms can’t be changed. A skilled lawyer can help you understand if the settlement terms are fair. While a lump-sum settlement lets you decide how you want to invest your money, a structured settlement provides many benefits.
Benefits of Structured Settlements
You can consult an experienced broker to help you structure your annuity to address your needs. Below are the benefits of a structured settlement:
- Flexibility. A structured settlement allows you to choose to start getting your payments right away or delay them, so they can accumulate. With a life-only annuity, you get paid for the rest of your life. A period-certain annuity will merely pay you for the amount the contract specifies.
- Frequency of payment. If you choose a structured settlement, you can decide to get payments monthly, quarterly, or every six months. Sometimes, you may even choose a combination of schedules based on your financial priories.
- Payout amounts. With a structured settlement, you can also decide the amount of money you get during every period of your settlement. For instance, you can get a huge sum for your first payment and half or a quarter of this amount for all subsequent disbursements.
If you want to learn more about personal injury settlements and their payment structures, contact a reputable personal injury attorney. The right attorney knows that every client has unique needs, so they emphasize the importance of trust and open communication. They know the laws regarding personal injury cases and apply them to your case. Because of their extensive experience dealing with a lot of kinds of personal injury cases, you can depend on them when it comes to getting the best outcome for your specific case.