New York Jury Awards Big Money in Medical Malpractice, Man Dies after Verdict - Only gets some $$

A man was seriously injured as a result of medical malpractice in New York and a jury awarded him a very significant amount of money. Did you know that shortly after he died after the jury verdict this man was not allowed to get most of the money he was awarded? Would you like to learn why? Come join me as I share with you that incredible information. Hi. I’m Gerry Oginski. I’m a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law in the state of New York. Today I’m coming to you from the island of Jamaica. I’m on a quick vacation with my wife; she’s out picking shells right now. I had an opportunity to give you this quick information. I was thinking about it and I wanted to tell you about this gentleman who went to trial and the jury awarded him a huge amount of money. But he died shortly after the jury verdict. And do you know what happened to that money? He was only able to get the first $200,000 dollars. All the remaining amount of money he was unable to get. Why is that? Now let’s assume he was awarded $1 million dollars, right? The law in New York says that when a jury awards you an amount of money you are entitled to get the first $250,000 dollars right away as a lump sum amount of money. Now what happens to the remaining $750,000 dollars? Well the law says in New York that amount of money has to be paid out over the course of your lifetime. Now the jury would have been required to determine what period of time that will be, whether it’s 10 years, 20 years, 30 years or something else. The defense buys something known as an annuity. And that’s an investment vehicle that basically they go to an insurance company or they go to some other financial services company and say, listen, we have to have something that takes $750,000 dollars and pays it out over the course of 20 or 30 years. How much is that going to cost us? So now they buy something known as an annuity. Does it cost them $750,000 dollars? No, it doesn’t. It’s going to cost them less to buy that. Why? Because the value of the dollar today is different than the value 30 years from now. So they have the ability to buy a discounted annuity product today in order to get the full value or $750,000 dollars paid out over the course of your lifetime. But what happens if he dies shortly after that verdict? What happens is the law says, “Sorry Mr. Jones. You are no longer allowed or permitted to get the remaining amount of money.” Now does that sound fair? The reality is it’s not. If this case had been settled for a $1 million dollars, then we don’t have to deal with this particular area of law where the payment is made over the course of his lifetime. Instead, we now have a direct payment to the client and now he doesn’t have to worry about that and he can go ahead and invest that money any way he wants. So why do I share this information with you? I share it with you just to give you an insight and an understanding into what goes on in the litigation process in the state of New York in cases involving medical malpractice. You know, chances are you’re watching this; you have questions and concerns about your own particular matter. And if your matter happened in New York and you have legal questions, what I encourage you to do is pick up the phone and call me. I answer questions like yours every single day and I welcome your call. You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I’m Gerry Oginski, coming to you from the island of Jamaica. I’m going to head out now, watch my wife pick shells on the beach. Have a wonderful day.