William T. Robinson, III, the President of the American Bar Association, spoke at the 2011 Annual Conference of NSSTA in La Jolla, California about his nearly 30 years of experience working with structured settlement professionals. He also offered a deeply personal testimony about helping to structure a settlement for the dying daughter of his closest friend. That such a prominent attorney would endorse structured settlements so strongly is a great indication of the benefits of the structured settlement product.
•Below: Defense Attorney Steve Jaffe (Nevada)
"I love it when my structure person becomes involved."
Famed Nevada defense attorney Steve Jaffe tells why structured settlement consultants can be an important addition to a mediation strategy.
•Below: Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin (Illinois)
“Structured settlements are an innovative way to resolve disputes and they provide tax-free financial security, dignity and peace-of-mind for injury victims and wrongful death survivors. Structured settlements work and they should be protected.”
• Below: Andrew J. Imparato - President, American Association of People with Disabilities
“Structured settlements are a model benefit for people with disabilities because there is no financial disincentive for a person who chooses to go back to work.”
• Alan Reich, President - National Organization on Disability
"Congress created structured settlements to provide long-term financial security for victims of serious injuries, many of whom are permanently disabled. Structured settlements meet the victim's ongoing expenses for medical care, living needs, and family support, and serve the public good by ensuring that victims don't dissipate their settlements and wind up on public assistance."
• Thomas Countee, Executive Director - National Spinal Cord Injury Association
"Over the past 16 years, structured settlements have proven to be an ideal method for insuring that persons with disabilities, particularly minors, are not tempted to squander resources designed to last years or even a lifetime."
• Philip Corboy, Chairman - American Bar Association's Special Committee on Medical Professional Liability
"For years, structured settlements have offered great benefit and financial security to injury victims, surviving spouses and children involved in tort cases."
• Joseph Weis, Senior United States Circuit Judge - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
"One of the enduring weaknesses of the common law tort system has been the reliance upon lump sum awards as compensation for the future consequences of personal injuries. Lump sum payments all too often are improvidently invested or squandered by unsophisticated recipients and so fail to provide for the lifetime of medical bills and unemployment faced by victims of serious injury. Once the money is dissipated, the victims must turn to the community for assistance.
One method to avoid the shortcomings of the flat sum procedure is to rely on structured settlements, a device which in more recent times, has been used frequently in payments for severe and costly injuries. This arrangement provides a guaranteed stream of income for the future that will aid the injured parties to cope with their disability over the years. Sound public policy encourages the use of such arrangement."