Litigation

Florida Structured Settlements... Best Practices

By John Darer

Section 626.99245 of the Florida statutes reads:

In negotiating a structured settlement of claims brought by or on behalf of a claimant who is domiciled in this state, the structured settlement obligor must disclose in writing to the claimant or the claimant's legal representative all of the following information that is not otherwise specified in the structured settlement agreement:

1.  The amounts and due dates of the periodic payments to be made under the structured settlement agreement. In the case of payments that will be subject to periodic percentage increases, the amounts of future payments may be disclosed by identifying the base payment amount, the amount and timing of scheduled increases, and the manner in which increases will be compounded;

2.  The amount of the premium payable to the annuity issuer;

3.  The discounted present value of all periodic payments that are not life-contingent, together with the discount rate used in determining the discounted present value;

4.  The nature and amount of any costs that may be deducted from any of the periodic payments;

5.  Where applicable, that any transfer of the periodic payments is prohibited by the terms of the structured settlement and may otherwise be prohibited or restricted under applicable law; and

6.  That any transfer of the periodic payments by the claimant may subject the claimant to serious adverse tax consequences.

Defendants, lawyers representing defendants and structured settlement consultants representing defendants need to be aware of their obligation, even though many plaintiff structured settlement consultants provide the information to their clients. Much of the disclosure can be incorporated into the release as provided by the statute.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).