HOUSE BILL NO. 942 Offered January 11, 2006 Prefiled January 10, 2006 A BILL to amend and reenact § 59.1-477.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the Structured Settlement Protection Act; application to workers' compensation benefit payments. ---------- Patron-- Morgan ---------- Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That § 59.1-477.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 59.1-477.1. General provisions, construction.

A. The provisions of this chapter may not be waived by any payee.

B. Any transfer agreement entered into on or after the effective date of the act of the General Assembly enacting this section by a payee who resides in this Commonwealth shall provide that disputes under such transfer agreement, including any claim that the payee has breached the agreement, shall be determined in and under the laws of this Commonwealth. No such transfer agreement shall authorize the transferee or any other party to confess judgment or consent to entry of judgment against the payee.

C. No transfer of structured settlement payment rights shall extend to any payments that are life-contingent unless, prior to the date on which the payee signs the transfer agreement, the transferee has established and has agreed to maintain procedures reasonably satisfactory to the annuity issuer and the structured settlement obligor for periodically confirming the payee's survival, and giving the annuity issuer and the structured settlement obligor prompt written notice in the event of the payee's death.

D. No payee who proposes to make a transfer of structured settlement payment rights shall incur any penalty, forfeit any application fee or other payment, or otherwise incur any liability to the proposed transferee or any assignee based on any failure of such transfer to satisfy the conditions of this chapter.

E. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to authorize any transfer of structured settlement payment rights in contravention of any law or to imply that any transfer under a transfer agreement entered into prior to July 1, 2001, is valid or invalid. The provisions of this chapter shall not be applicable to payments of workers' compensation benefits made pursuant to § 65.2-522 Title 65.2.

F. Compliance with the requirements set forth in § 59.1-475.1 and fulfillment of the conditions set forth in § 59.1-476 shall be solely the responsibility of the transferee in any transfer of structured settlement payment rights, and neither the structured settlement obligor nor the annuity issuer shall bear any responsibility for, or any other liability arising from, non-compliance with such requirements or failure to fulfill such conditions.