by Structured Settlement Watchdog
It took Buffalo Business First two sentences to completely flub structured settlements in profiling CrowFly, a local firm, co-founded by its current CEO, Nita Bhatia, and Milestone Consulting’s John Bair and Tony Barnes.
Buffalo Business First reporter Dan Miner says what CrowFly does is ” a web-based marketplace for structured settlements”
Structured Settlement Payments OR Structured Settlements
What CrowFly actually said is “we make it easy to buy and sell structured settlement PAYMENTS”
That’s something completely different than Miner’s words. CrowFly indicates it has no insurance license or securities license and does not provide such advice.
Buffalo Business First was clearly “at sixes and sevens” in describing structured settlements as “a monetary award, such as winning a personal injury lawsuit and the money is paid over time”
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PRO TIP
A settlement is not an award. It’s a negotiated compromise
That’s why it’s called a settlement.
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Then Buffalo Business First doubles down on wrong by asserting without authority that “the awardee can sell those settlements to get all the cash at once, but much less than the entire settlement is worth”.
First, let’s deal with the Lingo
- Meaning of awardee in English “a person who is given money, a prize, etc. by an official organization“- Cambridge Dictionary.
- According to law Insider, citing 6 sources an “official organization means any organization recognized by the university”.
- A settlement is not an award, case closed.
Now that we’ve clarified that, there’s the matter of:
Can someone sell their settlement? Nope.
Think about it, “their settlement” typically includes a provision for payment of attorney fees and a pay off of outstanding liens. How is someone going to sell the money paid to their attorney? It’s just silly. If they are receiving structured settlement payments, they can sell their structured settlement payment rights. Such transactions must be approved by a court in compliance with state structured settlement protection laws.
How do you “sell that settlement to get all the cash at once” while at the same time (hocus pocus) “But much less than the entire settlement is worth”
Part of my stated pro bono mission as Structured Settlement Watchdog is to help root out an dcorrect inaccuracy about stuctured settlements , wherever it exists