Planning for the Long Road After a Catastrophic Injury

A structured settlement pays an injury settlement in scheduled payments over time, instead of all at once. After a catastrophic injury in New Mexico, that choice can shape how you cover care for years. This page explains how a structured settlement after a catastrophic injury works, what it is used to fund, and which questions to ask before you agree to one.

This is general information. Every claim is different.

What a Structured Settlement Is

A structured settlement is an agreement to pay a settlement through a set schedule of periodic payments. Sometimes part is paid as a lump sum, and the rest arrives over months or years.

In most cases, the at-fault party or its insurer funds an annuity. An annuity is a contract, often issued by a life insurance company, that makes scheduled payments to the injured person. The injured person then receives each payment on the agreed dates.

A lump sum works differently. The injured person gets one payment and handles the money alone. A structure sets the money on a timeline instead. Structures can be useful when the money has to last a long time.

Ask to see the payment schedule in writing before you agree to anything. The schedule, amounts and start date should be clear on paper.

Why Catastrophic Injuries Often Raise the Structure Question

Catastrophic injuries often bring costs that last for years. That is why a structure comes up so often in these cases.

A spinal cord injury, an amputation or a severe burn can require ongoing medical care, medications, therapy, equipment and help at home. These needs may continue long after a case settles.

Think beyond the next year. A spinal cord injury can change the care plan as the body changes over time. A lump sum can run short if costs last longer than expected. A structure can line up payments with needs that keep coming.

One common mistake is to focus only on the total number in an offer. The total says little about when the money arrives. A structure is one tool, and its terms decide whether it fits your situation.

Economic Damages a Structure May Be Used to Fund

Economic damages are measurable money losses. They are often the costs a structure is built to cover.

In a New Mexico injury case, these losses can include past and future medical bills, lost wages, reduced ability to earn money and the cost of future care. Bills, pay records and cost estimates usually show these losses.

Future costs recur. That is why a regular payment schedule can match them. A regular payment can help cover a recurring prescription, therapy visit or equipment bill.

After a spinal cord injury or amputation, the home or vehicle may also need changes. A home may need ramps, wider doorways or a modified bathroom. A vehicle may need hand controls or a lift. Check whether the offer accounts for these costs.

Non-Economic and Punitive Damages in a New Mexico Case

Non-economic damages pay for pain, suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life. They are not calculated from bills.

Punitive damages are a separate category. They are not part of every claim. New Mexico’s punitive damages instruction lets a jury consider them only in certain conditions. The jury must first find that the injured person should recover compensatory or nominal damages. It must also find the conduct was malicious, willful, reckless, wanton, fraudulent or in bad faith (UJI 13-1827 NMRA).

New Mexico courts also require evidence of a culpable mental state.

How any category of damages is valued depends on the facts of each claim. Past results do not predict what another case will bring.

Questions to Review Before Accepting Any Settlement Offer

Before you accept, get the full terms in writing. Ask these questions:

• What is the total offer, and how much is paid now versus later?
• When do payments start, how often are they paid, and how much is each one?
• Do payments increase over time? What happens if the person receiving them dies?
• Who funds and issues the annuity, and what do its terms say about changes?
• Does the release end the whole claim? What exactly do you give up by signing?
• Do any medical or benefit liens have to be paid from the money? How much remains?
• Could the payments affect needs-based benefits you receive?

Monthly, quarterly and yearly schedules each change how the money is used. Write the exact dates into the agreement.

Read the release closely. The release wording can decide which claims remain open.

How El Gringo Law Reviews the Structure Documentation

El Gringo Law reviews how a settlement structure is documented. That includes the written terms, the payment schedule, the release language and the funding details.

You should receive written terms you can read before you sign. Raise questions about any document before the agreement is final. The questions in the list above are a starting point for that review.

Bring the written offer, any medical bills and any benefit letters you have. A review covers the real documents, not only a summary.

Josh Wood is the lawyer responsible for this page. Contact details for El Gringo Law appear at the end of this page.

New Mexico Timing and Fault Rules That Affect Settlement Talks

New Mexico uses comparative fault, so your share of fault can reduce what you recover. New Mexico adopted comparative negligence in Scott v. Rizzo in 1981.

Under New Mexico’s jury instructions, the jury reduces the damages by the injured person’s percentage of negligence (UJI 13-2218 NMRA). Your share of fault does not bar recovery entirely, but it lowers the amount.

Under UJI 13-2218, the Use Note limits the instruction to cases where there is no apportionment of negligence among defendants or non-parties.

Some exceptions can affect when a claim must be filed. For minors and incapacitated persons, the time runs one year after the incapacity ends (§ 37-1-10).

Claims against a state or local government entity follow their own rules, as explained in Thompson v. City of Albuquerque. Under § 41-4-15(A), actions against a governmental entity or public employee for torts must be commenced within two years after the occurrence, and a minor under the full age of seven years may file until his ninth birthday. This subsection applies to all persons regardless of minority or other legal disability.

An offer can arrive before doctors know the full extent of a catastrophic injury. That timing is one reason to review the structure with care.

Talk Through Your Offer with El Gringo Law

A structured settlement offer deserves a careful read before you decide.

If a spinal cord injury, an amputation or a burn has left you comparing a lump sum with payments spread over years, the decision carries real weight. Neither option fits every case. Compare the total, the timing and the release terms side by side.

Common Questions