UPDATE ON STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS

As of August 31, 2012 the Department had received 340 applications for state fund claim settlements. The majority of these, 264, involved workers without legal representation. Of the 340, so far 13 applications led to final settlement contracts approved by the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals. Others are in various stages of consideration, which can be a lengthy process.

The Department does not track characteristics of settled self-insured claims, and is not a party to self-insured claim settlement. We don’t know how many workers have requested their self-insured employers to negotiate a structured settlement. By monitoring the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals orders, we can see that as of August 31, 2012, of the 17 self-insured settlement agreements submitted for Board approval, the Board approved three.

Wayne L. Williams 

Williams, Wyckoff & Ostrander, PLLC