AAJ 2007 Annual Convention - 1

Today is the first day of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) 2007 Annual Convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago.  This author is attending the AAJ Convention as an AAJ member.

The AAJ Annual Convention is the largest and most important meeting of attorneys who are structured settlement stakeholders.  Many structured settlement companies are featured prominently among AAJ's donors, advertisers, exhibitors, sponsors, and affiliates.

By contrast, however, AAJ's 2007 educational program (both the Winter Meeting and this Annual Convention) completely ignores structured settlements.   For this 2007 Annual Convention:

• AAJ's educational program includes more than 250 presentations over five days - without one presentation addressing structured settlements;
• AAJ's two volume hardcopy educational manual contains more than 2500 pages - without a single reference to structured settlements.

Why should plaintiff attorneys study structured settlements?  And what should they be studying?

Several AAJ members, including Richard Risk, Matt Garretson and Daniel Hindert, have written about potential professional liabilities plaintiff attorneys face related to structured settlements.  These liabilities can result from a plaintiff attorney's failure to competently advise clients about structured settlements or related settlement planning options and issues. 

Since 2001, federal and state legislatures have enacted important new laws impacting structured settlements. Prominent among these new laws are: IRC section 5891; 46 state structured settlement protection statutes; the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 plus related state Medicaid legislation.  AAJ has not provided any educational programs about any of these new laws.

A recent marketing survey conducted on behalf of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA) found that 95% of plaintiff attorneys surveyed said they are proponents of structured settlements. The survey also found, however, that only 7% of personal injury settlements between $75,000 and $100,000 include a structured settlement compared with only 30% of settlements over $1 million. One significant problem and explanation, based upon this author's experience, is that few plaintiff attorneys are sufficiently knowledgable about structured settlement laws to properly advise their clients. 

During AAJ's 2006 Winter meeting, opinion letters written by law professors Stephen Saltzburg and Erwin Chemerinsky were presented which argued that plaintiff attorneys have a professional responsibility to obtain their clients "informed consent" as to any and all structured settlement compensation arrangements.  Unfortunately, AAJ has not provided any educational follow-up about this strategically important professional responsibility - and opportunity to advance "justice" for personal injury victims.

AAJ can and should help improve plaintiff attorneys' knowledge and professional competence about structured settlements. Preliminary suggestions:

• AAJ should develop a new educational category about negotiation and settlement and include structured settlements. A new book, "Negotiating and Settling Tort Cases", written by Matt Garretson and Guy Kornblum and featured at the beginning of AAJ's 2007 Educational Reference Materials, could provide a preliminary reference book.
  
• Among other topics, this proposed new AAJ educational category should address: 
  
  • General topics:   
    
    • Public policy related to negotiating and settling tort cases on behalf of injury victims;
    • Structured settlements;      
    • Personal injury settlement planning;      
    • Special needs planning;
    • Medicaid and Medicare liens;
    • Pre-litigation funding;
    • The secondary insurance markets.   
      
  • Legislation (and related regulations and case law) directly impacting structured settlements;
    • IRC  sections  104(a); 130; 468B; 5891;
  • State structured settlement protection statutes;
  • Deficit Reduction Act of 2005;
  • Medicare Secondary Payer rules.
  • Settlement trusts related to structured settlements including:
    • 468B funds;
  • Special needs trusts;
  • Pooled trusts;
  • Medicare set-aside arrangements.

S2KM will provide additional coverage from the AAJ 2007 Annual Convention during the next few days.

For previous S2KM blog posts about AAJ and ATLA, see:

• AAJ 2007 Winter Meeting
• ATLA 2006 Annual Meeting