Whether or Not the Biggest in Calif. History, $8.9M Worker's Comp Settlement Is 'Pretty Darn Large'
An $8.9 million structured worker’s compensation settlement he negotiated on behalf of a young painter severely injured in a fall from a scaffold may be the biggest in California history, says attorney Christopher Asvar.
Others confirm that the amount is, as a spokeswoman for the carrier that must ante up, puts it, “pretty darn large,” the Insurance Journal reports. However, there’s no way to know for sure what the biggest worker’s comp settlement on record is, because no one keeps track.
Asvar says the challenge of winning the settlement for Antonio Enriquez from California’s State Fund was “showing how settling would save a great deal of money for the carrier, as opposed to proceeding forward. This is a young man who will need care for many years to come.”
Enriquez was 18 when he fell from the 20-foot scaffold in 2004. Asvar said he now suffers not only from cognitive deficits, anxiety and depression but psychosis, self-mutilation and multiple personality disorder.
Under the structured settlement, Enriquez will receive monthly payments for the rest of his life. Typically, a party who agrees to fund such a settlement is charged an upfront figure that is smaller than the total of all payments to purchase an annuity from an insurance company. It then sends the checks in the agreed amounts, at the agreed intervals.
