§ 139.102.Presentation to Claimant

A statutory duty on the claimant’s own lawyer, which is unusual in this code.

Subsection (a) sets the timing: as soon as practicable after receiving the offer, but not later than any expiration date accompanying the quotation that outlines the terms, the attorney shall present the offer to the claimant or the claimant’s personal representative.

The expiration date matters because structured settlement quotations expire. They are priced from annuity rates that move, so a quotation held past its date is worth less or nothing — and a claimant who never saw it in time has lost the option without knowing it existed.

Subsection (b) adds an advisory duty, framed by what the claimant needs: to the extent reasonably necessary to permit an informed decision on acceptance or rejection, the attorney shall advise on two things.

(1) The terms, conditions, and other attributes of the proposed structure. (2) The appropriateness of the structured settlement under the circumstances.

The second is a judgment, not a description. The attorney must advise whether a structure suits this claimant — which turns on life expectancy, care needs, the reliability of the funding, and what a lump sum would realistically be worth after fees and over time.

Why the Legislature imposed this is worth naming. A contingent fee is calculated on the settlement, and a lump sum pays the lawyer immediately while a structure may not. The section removes any question about whose interest governs the recommendation.

The chapter provides no remedy of its own for breach, leaving the consequence to professional discipline and to the ordinary law of legal malpractice.