If you are awarded a large personal injury claim, should you take the money in a lump sum, or should you opt for regular payments?
Some of the largest sums awarded in civil actions – on both sides of the Atlantic – are for medical negligence, personal injury, and the like. This is because many of the successful claimants will be incapacitated for the rest of their lives to varying degrees. To take just one example, in October 2011, a 12 year old boy was awarded some £5 million in an out-of-court-settlement with the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust after suffering brain damage allegedly as the result of an operation to correct a heart defect in October 1999.
