Law Times

Law Times • November 26, 2012 Lawyers urged to consider structures Despite low interest rates, tax-free status can boost returns BRIEF: STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS C On the other hand, fully half of his company's business to date " BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times anada's low interest settlements, according to bro- kers of the products. rate environment re- mains a psychological barrier to structured cades in existence, structures, which divide large court settle- ments into regular tax-free instalments, have established themselves as a popular alter- native to lump-sum payouts, especially in cases that involve catastrophic injuries. Aſter more than three de- But with the Bank of Cana- da's key benchmark rate stuck at one per cent for the last two years, long-term investments at fixed rates of interest aren't cur- rently in vogue and structures tend to get tarred with the same brush, says Kyla Baxter, presi- dent of downtown Toronto' Baxter Structures. "I'm noticing a trend where everyone is saying, 'Why would you want a structure? The rates are so horrible, While s make sense at face value, Baxter says it ignores the big picture in the structures realm. that attitude may Device used in criminal cases Continued from page 14 Howard Society, and the public, would instantly recognize what a great tool SCRAM is for reduc- ing jail costs and dealing more effectively and efficiently with impaired driving and other al- cohol-related offences" he says. "It has not turned out that driving while prohibited. Aſter 99 days in pretrial cus- way. But we have had enthusi- astic expressions of support and good results and remain con- vinced that SCRAM' become more widespread, just more slowly than we first ex- pected. tody, the accused was released on bail subject to SCRAM alco- hol and house-arrest monitor- ing. By the date of sentencing, defence counsel was able to es- tablish that his client had been sober for eight months. The ac- cused' s use will that the bracelet helped her hus- band relearn his behaviour. s wife testified to her belief the time spent on restrictive bail conditions and crediting the ac- cused for pretrial custody, the judge "Aſter taking into account served on the impaired charge and an eight-month conditional sentence on an accompanying charge of driving while prohibit- ed with SCRAM monitoring re- quired for the first three months of the conditional sentence, sentenced him to time " says '" she says. rates are just as good or bad as the structures are. The differ- ence is you have the guaranteed return. Claimants still want the guarantees, so they see the ad- vantage and you can't beat that tax-free component," Baxter says. In fact, structured settle- Marshall. Other judges have comment- ed favourably on the program's use in criminal cases. But as Marynick sees it, full acceptance will come only aſter the SCRAM system has been fleshed out. "I expect that to happen once the technology has been tested in prosecuting a breach of recog- nizance charge, " he says. LT ments, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has made some pos- itive noises about increasing the rock-bottom benchmark, albeit in very conservative terms, with little movement expected before 2015. Still, Ralph Fenik, the president of Guelph, Ont.-headquartered McKellar Structured Settlements ment annuity rates typically beat long-term government of Canada bond rates even before the tax element has been fac- tored in. In his most recent public state- See Brokers, page 16 "It's all relative. The outside PAGE 15 has come from an unexpected source. "We are building on this development by adding stand- alone electronic monitoring services with a different ankle bracelet," says Marshall. "We're also adding GPS capa- bility." has developed a comprehensive bail compliance monitoring program that includes breach and ongoing compliance report- ing to police according to case‐ specific protocols specified by a court or arranged with police; direct on‐demand access to data for police; full evidentiary sup- port for the Crown in breach, revocation, and variation pro- ceedings; and reports provided on request for resolution discus- sions, pre-sentence reports, and sentencing hearings. All programs are funded by Indeed, Marshall's company the person being monitored with no cost to the Crown or police. Legal Aid Ontario fund- ing may be available but only in cases where alcohol monitoring reports will be submitted as evi- dence in resolution discussions or at sentencing. Recently, judges and Crowns have shown a growing accep- tance of the SCRAM program in criminal cases. In some cases, courts have made continued monitoring a term of the sen- tence imposed. By way of example, Marshall facing imprisonment for his fiſth conviction on charges of impaired driving. He also had previous convictions for refusal to provide a breath sample and cites R. v. Malicia as an example of the ideal application of al- cohol monitoring from bail through sentencing. The accused in Malicia was The McKellar Structured Settlement™ Financial security. Guaranteed payments. 100% tax free. Some decisions are easy. PAM LeJEAN Graduate Dalhousie University Untitled-3 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-04-30 4:30 PM

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