Sometimes when a plaintiff settles a case for a large sum of money, the defendant, the plaintiff's attorney , or a financial planner consulted in association with the settlement, will propose paying the settlement in installments over time rather than in a single lump sum. When a settlement is paid in this manner it is called a " structured settlement ". There are some settlement purchasing companies who are interested in paying the individual a lump sum amount for receiving the rights to receive a structured settlement; the lump sum amount offered is a discounted amount. The individual who gets the lump sum amount can use this amount for buying a house or automobile or pay for schooling etc. Under normal circumstances the payment would be done on the fixed intervals agreed to between the two parties and the individual would not be able to purchase items such as house, car etc. The recipient of a settlement may have his own reasons for considering cas...