§ 5033.Posting and maintaining security.

A structured judgment only protects a malpractice plaintiff if the money to fund it is secured, and CPLR 5033 makes posting that security mandatory rather than optional. Once a court enters a judgment for periodic installments, every party liable for all or part of it, whether alone or jointly with others, has thirty days from entry to post security sufficient to cover the future installment payments. That obligation reaches beyond the named defendant: a liability insurer with a contractual duty to pay, or anyone else adjudged responsible for all or part of the judgment, has to post security to the extent of its own obligation if the judgment debtor hasn't already done so.

The statute gives the judgment creditor, or a successor in interest, along with anyone else with rights in the judgment, a direct enforcement tool. That party can move for a finding that security hasn't been posted and maintained on an obligation owed to them, and once the court so finds, it orders security to be posted within thirty days. If that deadline passes without security being posted, the court's remedy is significant: it enters judgment for the lump sum the law would otherwise require, disregarding the periodic-payment structure entirely.

The section also handles multi-party liability with some nuance. Where a single judgment debtor is the only party liable for a discrete portion of the judgment and fails to post security, the lump-sum remedy applies only against that debtor and that portion, leaving the rest of the structured judgment intact for parties who did secure their share. And where multiple parties share liability for a single portion and only some of them post the required security, the security requirement is treated as satisfied for that portion, with those who did post security able to pursue reimbursement from the ones who didn't.