Structured Settlement

Published on: February 27, 2025

$1,000,000 Settlement? Here’s what to expect

The policy limits under the majority of standard car insurance policies in Ontario is $1,000,000.

Those policy limits don’t stack. That means that if there are more than 1 vehicle involved in a car accident, it doesn’t mean that the Plaintiff has access to $1,000,000 under one policy, plus $1,000,000 under another policy. It means that the policy limits of the claim are limited to $1,000,000; which, if you think about it long and hard, isn’t all that much money in 2025. Will $1,000,000 buy you a home in Toronto proper? Perhaps it will buy you a home outside of Toronto, but after paying all of the closing costs, insurance, taxes, and furnishing the home, you might not be left with a whole lot. In any event, $1,000,000 today, is not the same as $1,000,000 decades ago.

Insurance companies are reluctant to write lump sum cheques for $1,000,000. There are a lot of policy reasons for that. Namely, insurers don’t want their willingness to write the cheque, to come back and create a legal problem.

What do I mean by that?

Let’s assume that a car accident case settles for $1,000,000; and the insurer cuts a lump sum cheque. The Plaintiff then takes his/her share of the settlement funds, and blows through them in a matter of months, weeks, or even days. How can one do that? There are plenty of ways, I can assure you.

Months later, the Plaintiff retains a different personal injury lawyer to bring a claim against the insurance company, along with his/her old personal injury lawyer alleging that the settlement was either not enough (improvident); that it was not placed into a structure (improvident); or that the settlement never should have taken place to begin with.

There might be merit to the Plaintiff’s claim. There might be no merit at all. Nonetheless, after the claim has been made, the insurer and the old personal injury lawyer have to defend it; which is a pain in the you know what; particularly after the parties believe that the claim had settled. After all, the Plaintiff did receive a $1,000,000 which s/he agreed to.

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Published on: May 27, 2020

The fine print behind million dollar and multi million dollar personal injury claims in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

There are few moments in life where a person receives a million dollar lump sum of money. Here are but a few which come to mind.

A good investment.

Winning the lottery.

A very wealthy family member who left you a sizable inheritance.

Cashing in stock options which have appreciated over the years.

Sale of a real estate asset.

A successful personal injury claim.

In all of these scenarios, except for ONE; the money is yours to use as you please; notwithstanding applicable taxes.

The lone exception are the personal injury cases. There is fine print behind those million and multi million dollar settlements which we would like to share with you today.

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Published on: October 20, 2017

Structured Settlements in Personal Injury Cases (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

To structure, or not to structure? That is the question for the purpose of this entry in the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. Sometimes, whether to enter in to a structured settlement is not an option; rather a requirement. Other time, you may have a decision to structure or not.

WHAT IS A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT?

A structured settlement is a negotiated financial arrangement whereby an injured accident victim agrees to accept a usually large lump sum of money in the form of a settlement from a personal injury claim. That lump sum is then placed in to an interest bearing financial instrument (called a structure) which gets paid out in periodic payments over a long period of time to the Plaintiff.

Instead of receiving one large lump sum at one time, the Plaintiff instead receives periodic payments (usually every month) set over a schedule which normally lasts a life time.

The monthly payments, administration and maintenance of the structure are not charged to the person receiving the structure, unless otherwise specified.

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