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16 May 2014 / Richard Fraser
Issue: 7606 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
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Taking care

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Cathy Kelly is a living, breathing case for structured settlements, says Richard Fraser
Cathy Kelly hasn’t spoken for more than a quarter of a century. Yet despite her silence, her every breath is an eloquent argument for structured settlements. In 1989, she was catastrophically injured in a head-on car crash. In July that year, the High Court awarded her Britains first ever structured settlement, the precursor to periodical payment orders (PPOs).

The accident left her husband dead, and Cathy in what was described in court as a persistent vegetative state requiring 24-hour care.

At the time medical opinion differed widely on projections of Cathy’s life expectancy, with estimates ranging from 10 to 20 years. In the event she confounded their predictions and, 25 years on, Cathy still lives near her family in a nursing home in Bury, Lancashire.

First of its kind

When her case came to court, all severe injury claims were settled on a lump sum basis.

My firm provided expert financial advice to the team that represented Cathy. Our calculations showed

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