Widow and Children are Covered by a Structured Settlement when Husband/Father is Killed in Pennsylvania Truck Driving Accident.

Our client was fatally injured when he lost control of his rig outside of Pittsburgh, PA. He lived in Ohio with his wife and children. Under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, his widow would be entitled to a portion of his weekly compensation benefit for her lifetime or until she remarried and/or co-habitated. At that point, she would be entitled to an additional two years of weekly checks, and the checks would stop. Our client's children would be entitled to a portion of his weekly income until each of them reached age 18, or if enrolled in an institution of higher learning, until the age of 23. (If any one of the children was disabled, that child's benefit would continue until the disability ceased.)

Our client's widow was interested in a future weekly benefit. Our office negotiated with the trucking company, and, eventually, came up with a proposal that paid a lump sum of money to the widow, along with periodic lump sum payments to the age of 65. We also obtained lump sum payouts to the children.

Since the widow was receiving Social Security Disability benefits for her children, she was comfortable giving up the weekly check from workers' compensation in order to have larger payouts over time. This also provided her the peace of mind to know that her children would receive payouts in order to pay for a college education or technical school education down the road.

The use of periodic lump sum and/or monthly payments is called a "structured settlement". A structured settlement is not right for every case; however, as in the above case, it provided long-term financial security for the widow and her children.