Penalty for late payment?

What is the name of your state? New York......My family settled a wrongful death suit regarding my mother. It went before a federal judge on February 8th, 2005 and we agreed to settle with the doctors insurance company. We have had a lawyer handling the case and received a breakdown from him as to what our final distribution would be but that was 5 months ago....My brother contacted our lawyer and he is turn called the defendents lawyer and they indicated they had lost the paperwork.......Can we impose a penalty to the doctors insurance company for not paying in a timely matter....we have lost alot of interest on that money since our plan was to put in bank for the future. Thank you in advance for your response.