§ 139.001.Definitions

Two definitions for a short chapter about how structured settlement offers reach the people they are made to.

"Claimant" means a person described by the scope provision — an incapacitated person, or a person whose personal injury resulted in substantial disablement — who makes a claim to which the chapter applies.

"Incapacitated person" takes its meaning from the Estates Code, which defines it around a person’s substantial inability, because of a physical or mental condition, to provide food, clothing or shelter for themselves, care for their own physical health, or manage their own financial affairs.

Borrowing that definition rather than writing one keeps the chapter aligned with guardianship law, which is where an incapacitated person’s affairs are administered and where a personal representative is appointed.

The two categories in the scope provision do not overlap entirely, and the second is not defined at all. "Substantial disablement" is left to its ordinary meaning, which gives it room to cover a catastrophically injured person who remains legally competent.

That is the situation the chapter is aimed at: someone facing decades of care costs, for whom the structure of a settlement matters as much as its total.

The chapter imposes duties on the claimant’s own attorney rather than on the offeror, which is unusual and is what the definitions are ultimately serving.